Evangelion: Shinji and Hyde
by Nicholas Bledsoe
Summary: In each of us there are two natures, and Shinji Ikari is no exception. Now, as the Angel of Might attacks, Shinji has a choice to make. Act 1 is now complete. !WARNING! !SONGFIC!
1. Lost in the Darkness

Author's Notes: Ok, this is my first attempt at fan fiction. Any reviews, flames or otherwise, are appreciated (though, if you flame, please state the reasons you didn't like the story so I can understand why and fix it in later chapters). 

This is the first part of a much longer story, which may take me some time to finish. I plan to release the rest when the story nears completion, and at that time I will post about once a week. This is a songfic, and the chapter titles are taken from the musical _Jekyll and Hyde _by Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn. 

Disclaimer: I do not own _Neon Genesis Evangelion _or _Jekyll and Hyde. _

Tokyo 3, Nerv Hospital Ward.

Near the end… 

The night nurse looked up as the unimposing figure walked up to her desk. She smiled as he signed in. It was a regular occurrence now. He visited almost every night, after everyone else had left. It was unusual, but she had been told it was for security purposes. He was one of the pilots, the ones that fought those monsters with those giant robots. 

As he walked away she noticed his escort, the black garbed agents that followed him wherever he went. They were always following in his wake, never interfering, but always nearby. 

Shinji knew about the Section Two agent was somewhere behind him, and there were probably more not far away. He used to resent their constant, overwhelming presence, but not anymore. He was actually thankful they were so close by, especially when he made these visits. He stopped at one door, reading what was written on it. 

Room 303. Sohryu, Asuka Langley.

He took a breath to collect himself , and turned the cold steel handle.

The rhythmic hiss of the respirator and the steady beat of the EKG did little to diminish the unearthly stillness of the room. The polished white surfaces, the gleaming chrome, the smell of disinfectant that permeated everything. It was so cold and clean, so sterile, so…

…lifeless.

So unlike the person he remembered, the girl who was so full of life and fire. The one that now needed a machine to breath for her. Her skin was pale, glistening slightly from the thin layer of sweat on her brow. The expression on her face was one of extreme sorrow and exhaustion, too tired from fighting the demons that plagued her, one of which he was responsible for creating. 

The numerous devices attached to her only served to make the scene more heart-rending. An iv drip in her arm, the monitor wires, the clear plastic tube taped over her mouth forcing air into her lungs. She hadn't opened her eyes once since they had brought her in. 

__

Lost in the darkness, silence surrounds you.

He was responsible for what had happened to her. If he had been a little stronger, she would never have been hurt. But he was just a weak little boy.

__

Once there was morning, now endless night.

It was his fault. He had caused her to do it, and when he had finally found her…

__

If I could reach you, I'd guide you and teach you.

To walk from the darkness, back into the light.

He took her pale hand in his own, his heart sank even further when he felt how cold and clammy her skin was. She was slowly getting better, they had told him that much. They would try taking her off the respirator tomorrow, but the doctors had no idea when she would wake up, if ever.

They had told him that she most like likely couldn't hear him, but he would try anyway, even if it was only a slim chance he could give her some comfort. Crouching down next to her, he whispered…

__

"Deep in your silence, please try to hear me.

I'll keep you near me, till night passes by."

He didn't expect any response, and he did not receive one. Though he wished with all his heart that she would be better again, a part of him was glad he did not have to face her now. He had no idea what he could say to her, to make up for all he had done.

Besides… He still had his own demons to face.

__

"I will find the answer. I'll never desert you.

I promise you this, till the day that I die. "

He managed to force back his tears this time, slowly standing. He didn't want to put his own problems on Asuka, not anymore. He was here for her sake, not his own and the last thing she needed was him sobbing like a spineless wimp. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Goodnight Asuka."


	2. No One Knows Who I Am

Author's notes- Sorry its been so long, but I have been reluctant to release any chapters until I had more done. I hope things will proceed much quicker once Winter semester is over. I am still ironing out the dialogue for future chapters, and I have already submitted some to my pre-readers. A special thanks to Misty-Chan, Miss CrazyHappyOrangeLady, and her royal evilness Vegeta's Lil' Princess for pre-reading. Thanks for all the prodding and poking (and occasional burning) to keep me writing.

Disclaimer- I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde.

Sometime after the defeat of the Twelfth Angel…

For the first time in weeks Tokyo 3 enjoyed an rare afternoon silence. It was to be short-lived, as it was quickly broken by a high-pitched voice that caused nearby birds to take flight in alarm at what could only be the forewarning of another impending disaster.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE KISSED YOU?!"

"Shhhhhhhh!" Asuka hissed as she slapped a hand over her less-than-discreet friend's mouth, looking around to make sure no one heard. She dragged Hikari around the side of the building away from the prying eyes and ears of the their inquisitive classmates.

Looking around to be sure there was no one listening, she whispered, "What are you, stupid? You don't need to announce it to the whole school .It was just a kiss." 

__

Great, just great, she though. The last thing she needed was for it to get around school that she and the lead stooge had kissed. She knew she could trust Hikari, but Hikari's voice tended to carry well, and Asuka didn't want to spend the next few months answering all the stupid questions the other girls would invariably ask. She was going to have a hard time explaining it to Hikari, let alone a dozen or more. _Arrrrgh! Why did I even bring it up with Hikari?!_

__

Because you wanted to tell someone, came the response in her head. Asuka mentally cursed at the voice in the back of her mind in German, Japanese, and in a few other languages that she could not speak well, or at all, but could swear quite fluently in. 

A muffled, panicked noise brought her attention back to the real world and the girl she was currently holding prisoner. Asuka released her hold on Hikari with a slight embarrassed blush, allowing the pigtailed class rep to gasp for air. 

"When did this happen? How? What was it like?" 

Asuka rolled her eyes at her friend, who was now acting like one of the airheads she had wanted to avoid, "It was a little while before the last angel attacked." 

"So, what happened?" Hikari asked excitedly, sitting down on a bench against the wall. 

"We were stuck at the apartment alone and it was boring so…" Asuka said, taking a seat next to her.

"That's it? Doesn't sound very romantic. It was boring so he kissed you?" 

"Actually… I… kinda… dared him to kiss me…" Asuka added sheepishly, looking away to avoid Hikari's gaze.

"You dared him to do it? And he did?" Hikari asked, a puzzled look on her face. 

"Yes he did, and why do you sound so surprised?" Asuka asked narrowing her eyes at her friend. 

"N…n…nothing. Its just Shinji seems so shy," Hikari stammered and grinned nervously, hoping that Asuka wouldn't start interrogating her and whether or not she was thinking of using the same approach on a certain stooge. 

Asuka flipped her hair over her shoulder haughtily. "Well, shy or not, the idiot should feel privileged that he got to kiss a vision of beauty such as myself."

"So what was it like? Was he a good kisser?"

"It was ok, I guess." Asuka began to get uncomfortable, and fidgeted on the bench. _Why should I be edgy? Its not like it was that big a deal. Then why do I feel so anxious?_

__

Because some part of you liked it. Asuka hushed the voice in her head. So what if a part of her enjoyed it? So what if 

"Its not like it was a real kiss anyways." 

"Asuka?"

"Yeah?"

Asuka turned to Hikari, who's face had taken on a very serious expression "Did you use your lips?" 

Asuka nodded hesitantly. 

"Did it involve his?"

Asuka nodded again, trying to figure out where her friend was going with this.

"Well, Asuka," Hikari said, "I hate to break it to you, but that was a real kiss." She flashed a jubilant grin at Asuka.

"Oh, Mein Gott Hikari!" Asuka said, throwing her arms up in the air and rolling her eyes, "If I had know you were going to make such a big deal out of this I would never have told you!" 

"So, was this the first time you ever kissed a boy?" Hikari continued, still beaming. 

Asuka made a disgusted noise, "Like I would waste my first kiss on a dummkoph like Shinji." 

"So you've kissed someone before?"

Asuka hung her head before answering quietly, "I already told you… It wasn't a real kiss…" 

"Asuka you shouldn't take this so lightly. Your first kiss is not something you forget."

"What if you don't want to remember?" 

"Was it really so bad?" Hikari asked, she put a hand on Asuka's shoulder, causing Asuka to flinch. "What happened?"

"You wouldn't understand," Asuka muttered. 

"How can I understand if you don't tell me what happened?" Hikari had a pleading look in her eyes. At first she had just been curious, now she was genuinely concerned that something had happened to Asuka. 

"He pushed me away! Are you happy now?" she shouted at Hikari. "He ran out of air, pushed me away, and I ran into the bathroom to wash my mouth out."

"Seems a little overly-dramatic to me." Hikari observed quietly. There was a long silence as the two girls just sat there. Finally Hikari broke the silence, "Have you tried talking to Shinji about what happened?"

"That idiot? Why should I talk to him?"

"Well, If you like him…" 

"Ha! Me like that spineless wimp?" Asuka laughed. "What ever gave you the idea that I liked Shinji?"

"Asuka, I know you, " Hikari stated, "and you wouldn't kiss someone unless you really liked them."

"Then I guess you don't know me as well as you think." Asuka said as she stood abruptly and stormed off. 

* * *

Later that evening, the Katsuragi/Ikari/Sohryu apartment.

It had been a comparatively quiet evening for the apartment's four residents. Misato and PenPen had been as active and noisy as they usually were, particularly after both had consumed one or two cans of yebisu. Shinji had been stereotypically silent and reserved. But there was still a crucial component missing from the surroundings.

Asuka had been quiet the whole evening. Sensing that he had somehow done something to make Asuka angry at him, Shinji had earlier retreated to the safety of his room. He lay on his bed with the earbuds to his SDAT on, but the player itself remained off. He heard the door slam as Asuka entered the bathroom. 

Sighing, he went over everything that had happened that day, trying to discover what he had done to make Asuka so mad that she wouldn't even speak to him to insult him. Whatever it was, he couldn't remember. 

In truth Asuka was still going over her argument she had earlier with Hikari. It was driving her crazy that Hikari had thought she LIKED Shinji. 

She grabbed the tube of toothpaste, crushing it in her grasp and loading up her toothbrush with it until the bristles were completely obscured by the minty gel.

__

Stupid Shinji, she thought, _he must have done or said something to make Hikari think that I liked him, or she wouldn't have pursued it so hard. _

She brushed her teeth briskly and forcefully, scrubbing until her gums were sore and her mouth burned from the strong mint and cleansers in the toothpaste. 

Of course it probably hadn't helped that she told Hikari about the kiss…

Taking a swig from her glass, she vigorously rinsed her mouth out cleansing it of the burning foam, then spit violently into the sink. With a smug smirk she slammed the glass down and looked up into the mirror.

…to be greeted by a face she did not recognize.

Oh it was definitely her face, no one else in Tokyo 3 had that particular shade of red hair or those blue eyes, but the expression on her face. She knew that expression well, the one she used so often to look down upon the rest of the world with. She knew exactly what that look felt like with every muscle in her face, but she had never taken the time to really look at it for herself.

She traced the outline of her lips as the sneer softened into a hesitant frown. She had looked like a spoiled child, some uppity brat that always got what she wanted. 

Was that really how the rest of the world saw her? 

__

Look at me and tell me who I am.

Why I am what I am.

She plugged the sink and turned on the faucet, watching it slowly fill with water, the steam rising up to tickle her nose, finding the sensation disturbingly familiar. She splashed some on her face, the hot water relaxing. 

Call me a fool, and its true, I am.

I don't know who I am.

She took her bar of soap and started to wash her face, relishing the sweet fruit scent of the soap. She didn't wear much makeup, so there wasn't a lot to clean off. Just enough to hide tiny imperfections. 

Just a façade to hide behind, like her behavior.

__

It's such a shame. I'm such a sham.

No one knows who I am.

Hikari, the girl that was supposed to be her best friend, the person she could share everything with, really didn't know anything about her. Despite that, she actually cared. She had only been trying to help, and Asuka had bitten her head off. Maybe, if she talked to Hikari about it, she might understand. 

__

Am I the face of the future? Am I the face of the past?

Unplugging the sink, she watched as the water drained, the last remnants of foam and spiraling down into the dark.

Am I the one who must finish last?

She glanced her reflection in the mirror again, noticing the bright red points she hadn't yet taken out of her hair. Carefully removing the interface clips, she held them for the longest time, just staring at them. 

She looked back up, finding it strange to see herself without them. They had been a part of her daily attire for so long that they almost seemed a part of her, and with them absent she looked like a different person. 

__

Look at me and tell me who I am.

Being the best pilot had been her claim to fame. She had the highest scores, the best EVA, and the more skills and training, but now Shinji had the highest scores and it scared her that she might not be the best anymore. 

Was that the only thing she had in her life?

__

Why I am what I am.

Was EVA the only thing she had? Was that the only thing she was good for? If it was, then what made her any better than Rei? Sure she showed more emotion than Rei ever did, a tree stump showed more emotion than Rei ever did. But was that necessarily a good thing? Did it make her any more important? Better? What really made her any different than the Commander's little wind-up doll?

Did anyone care about her for anything else? Was EVA all she was good for? Was there anything else about her worth caring for? She never showed anyone who she really was. How could she, when she didn't know herself?

Will I survive? Who will give a damn,

If no one knows who I am?

Asuka had no illusions about how dangerous being a pilot really was. She knew that it was quite possible any one of them might go into battle and never make it back. The last time Shinji nearly didn't make it back. The pilot with the highest scores and he only survived by the slimmest of margins. 

__

Nobody knows… 

She took a lingering glance at Shinji's door, before retreating to her own tiny room. He was probably one of the few people who would care if she... 

Not even you…

…and she treated him like dirt. The fact that he still COULD still care about her, despite what she had made herself into, made her feel sick to her stomach. 

There were times when she was sure he had a crush on Wondergirl, the way he always stared at her, defended her. And why shouldn't he? What had SHE ever given him but grief and abuse? 

She didn't want Shinji to like her, not if he liked her for who she was now. She almost wished that he did hate her for everything she did to him. 

She crawled under the covers , too exhausted to do anything else but lie there, too caught up in her own troubled thoughts to sleep.

No one knows who I am…

She just stared at the dark ceiling, for empty endless hours, gazing at nothing until her mind finally drifted into the merciful bliss of a dreamless sleep. 


	3. Dangerous Game

Author's Notes- Sorry its taken so long for me to post, but I wanted to have a running start before I let this story see the light of day. I still have some gaps in the later part of the story, and I've had to add some chapters when there was too much to cover in one. As of this moment, the story has over twenty chapters. I stated at the beginning that I planned to post about once a week , and I think I am at the point where that is now possible (except for a possible hiatus at the end of Act 1) . Thanks again to all my pre-readers, especially those who read the scary chapters alone in the dark. *evil giggle*

Disclaimer- I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde. 

The next morning, Asuka's Room…

She was awake long before her alarm clock went off. Asuka stared at the display, her gaze threatening to burn a hole clean through the offending numbers. With her early waking combined with her restlessness the night before, she had barely gotten five hours sleep. 

There was no way she was going to be able to get back to sleep before she had to go to school, so she removed herself from her tangled covers made her way towards the bathroom. 

Asuka stared at her reflection in the mirror, her image fuzzy. She rubbed her eyes, which burned from lack of sleep, temporarily clearing the image, but with every blink and movement her vision switched from blurry to clear, somewhere between the two, and back again. Her hair was rough, tousled in some spots and flattened in others where she had slept on it . 

She turned on the shower, letting the water run for several minutes allowing plenty of time for the water to warm up. Soon great clouds of steam issued forth from the shower filling the ceiling of the bathroom and fogging the top of the mirror. She leaned in to turn up the cold water a little, careful to avoid the stream of hot water, a wave of steam tickling her nose. 

__

Boy, that's familiar, she thought to herself as she scratched the side of her nose. Once she thought the water was the right temperature she undressed, stepping out of her clothes and into the water, which was unfortunately still a little too hot, forcing her to step to one side and evade the scalding spray until she got it adjusted correctly. 

For several minutes she just stood in the stream of water, letting the warmth wash away her drowsiness and fatigue. Holding her head in the jet she soaked her hair until it hung limply and clung to her shoulders and face. Pushing her bangs back out of her eyes she cupped her hands and splashed the water on her face, rubbing her eyes and ridding herself of some of the irritation she had woken with.

She grabbed her bottle of shampoo, squirting some into her hand then working it into her hair, the soft, strawberry scent filling her nostrils. The aroma always relaxed her. If only for a few moments, she was at peace, letting everything else drop away as she let her senses be overwhelmed by the fragrance.

* * *

She had her hair wrapped in a towel as she left her room, already dressed in her school uniform. As she passed by it, she noticed Shinji's door was still closed. She poised her hand to knock, but hesitated. For a brief moment she considered bursting in and dragging him to the kitchen to make her breakfast, but only for an instant. 

Instead, she slid his door open a crack to see if he was already awake. 

Shinji lay in a tangled mess of sheets after what must have been a fitful sleep. One of his earbuds had been pulled free during the night, the other hung from his ear, the cord plugged into nothing. The S-DAT lay on the floor. Asuka could not see if it was on or if the batteries had run down during the night.

Seeing him lying there, his hair sticking out at odd angles and his face betraying none of the anguish it usually displayed with such ease, Asuka couldn't bring herself to wake him. Smiling, she quietly closed the door and padded into the kitchen. She'd let him sleep in just a little bit longer.

* * *

Conference Room, Nerv 

Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki stood over Commander Ikari's shoulder glancing at the file folder that lay open in front of him. He only read a little of what was written. 

Keel, Henrietta J. 

DOB: 6/4/81 

Nationality: British 

Education: Standiford University, Palo Alto, California, USA. Oxford University, Headington, Oxford, UK

Doctorate in Psychiatry, MS in Chemical Engineering, MS in Nano-technology,

BA in Ar…

The rest was covered by another folder which Ikari kept closed. A photograph was papercliped in the corner of the file portraying a young woman with dark, tightly-crimped hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her features were lean and distinct, with well defined cheekbones, small nose and tapered chin, over which was drawn exceedingly pale skin, as if she never saw daylight. 

The Sub-Commander briefly noticed a resemblance to Pilot Ayanami, though even Rei's lack of emotion was not so disturbing. Where the first child's presence was disquieting, he sometimes felt saddened by the unhappiness visible her crimson eyes. Keel's green eyes seemed to stare defiantly out from the photo, as if she had some vendetta with the world itself.

He looked up as the door opened and Doctor Akagi entered, a folder similar to Ikari's clutched in her hand.

"Good morning doctor," he greeted cheerily. 

"Maybe after a few more cups of coffee, it will be," she remarked with a grim smirk. She nodded at Ikari. "Commander."

"Doctor."

An long silence followed, until the Sub-Commander sought to break the stillness. "So Doctor, what can you tell us about you colleague Doctor Keel?"

"Not much to say, really. I haven't had much opportunity to speak with her. She has done good work since she joined us, though."

"What are her assigned duties, Doctor?" Gendo ventured, not bothering to look at her.

"Mostly she has been analyzing the data and remains gathered from the angels that have been defeated."

Fuyutsuki was confused by this last comment. "I thought Doctor Keel was a Psychiatrist? What is she doing analyzing angels?" 

"She hasn't had many requests from the staff for counseling, surprisingly," the doctor explained, muttering the last bit sardonically. "Rather than be stuck in her office doing nothing, she offered to assist us. The information she has gathered on the eleventh angel alone has been invaluable. Some of her research was even used to improve the performance of the Magi."

"Well," Fuyutsuki said, "I hope her newest proposal proves as helpful."

The Commander merely interlaced his fingers in front of his face, already knowing what Keel planned to propose, and what the outcome of the meeting would be. 

* * *

Shinji stretched himself, pulling on the sheets tangled around his feet. Lightly dozing, his still-drowsy mind wandered, mulling over things like what he was going to make for lunch, how was he going to apologize to Asuka, what was he apologizing for again, why do I feel so rested for a change…

…what was that smell? It smelled like someone was…

COOKING!?! Shinji bolted upright, his mind abruptly awakened by the implication of this. Not wanting to believe it, he grabbed his clock, but staring at the numbers he could not deny it. He had forgotten to set his alarm and overslept. Asuka must have slept in too, otherwise he would already be in there cooking her breakfast.

Which could only mean that Misato had woken up early and was cooking breakfast herself. _And if the food doesn't get me, Asuka will for letting Misato cook._

Shinji jumped as someone knocked on his door, praying for the only salvation that might save him.

__

Please let it be PenPen who's cooking. Please let it be PenPen who's cooking. Please let it be PenPen who's …

"Shinji?" came the soft voice through the door. _Was that Asuka? _

"Baka? Are you awake yet?" came the voice, sounding only slightly irritated. _Definitely Asuka though_, he thought as she knocked lightly again.

"Yes," came Shinji's slightly confused reply.

"Well hurry it up. Breakfast is going to get cold," he heard through the door, followed by light footsteps receding, not the characteristic stomping he normally associated with the fiery German girl.

His curiosity piqued, Shinji ventured out of his room, stepping cautiously toward the kitchen. Whatever it was that was cooking in there, it didn't smell like it was burning. In fact, it smelled absolutely delicious.

Shinji entered the kitchen not sure what to expect. He saw Asuka turning off the stove, which she had apparently forgotten when she went to get him. She dumped the slightly smoking pan into the sink, running water into it, which immediately started to steam. Asuka was cooking? He wondered what she was making, Okonomiyaki? He looked at the stack of thin golden brown cakes, wondering what the tiny blue spots in them were.

"Asuka?" he asked nervously.

"Hurry up and eat. We don't want to be late for school." She said as she turned off he water, adding some dish soap to the pan and letting it soak.

"Sure, but what is.."

"Look. Do you want breakfast, or not, Baka?" Asuka turned towards with her hands on her hips, fixing him with a unconvincing glare.

Shinji sat without another word as Asuka set a plate of the breakfast she had made in front of him. Shinji took the fork uncertainly, as Asuka sat across from him. He cut a piece off with the side of the fork. Glancing up, he could se Asuka was looking on hopefully so he took a hesitant bite. 

Asuka's was shaking slightly, her stomach doing small somersaults. She had no idea if he would like them or not. She was reluctant to try her own pancakes, which had been her earliest attempts and were lopsided and burned. _Not that it really mattered what to her what Shinji thought_, she told herself, but she was not about to have anyone try anything but her best work.

Shinji chewed, swallowed, and Asuka waited apprehensively for his reaction.

"Hey Asuka, this is really good!"

Asuka was beaming with pride. "Well of course. What did you expect?"

Shinji cut off another bite, "What is it?" 

"Blueberry pancakes," Asuka said as she started eating her own plate, which was palatable, but not as good as they might have been had they not been spider-webbed with burns. It helped when she poured on some of the syrup that had come with the pancake mix. 

"Here, try it with this," she said handing him the syrup. 

"Thanks."

Asuka smiled. She was glad It had surprised her when she received the care package from Germany almost a month ago, filled to near overflowing with her favorite foods, bath products, even a dress from her favorite boutique in Berlin. She knew that she should have thanked her stepmother for sending them, it was just hard for her to relate to the woman her father had married. 

Maybe she could still write. She felt a little guilty for having waited so long, despite how she felt about her stepmother. 

She was interrupted from her reflection by the sound of running water. She looked over her shoulder to see Shinji washing the syrup and crumbs from his plate. _He's already finished? My cooking must be good_, She thought proudly. Of course, Misato would have had a hard time screwing up the just-add-water recipe. 

Looking down at the half-eaten, mostly-burned remains of her own pancakes, Asuka suddenly felt full. She dumped the remnants of her pancakes into the garbage, and took her plate to the sink. 

Shinji had a hard time trying to figure out what was happening. Just yesterday, Asuka had been giving the stone-wall treatment to everyone, and now she was practically cheery. And the fact that she had made breakfast meant that he still had enough time left to get dressed and make their lunches before they went to school.

Asuka was now standing right next to him, washing off her own plate as he started cleaning the pan she had left in the sink to soak. He briefly wondered how she had managed to make such perfectly done cakes, and yet leave so much burnt onto the pan.

Of course, his train of thought was constantly being derailed by her close proximity, the faint strawberry scent of her shampoo mingling with the sweet smell lingering from the pancakes. He noticed Asuka taking a deep breath with her eyes closed out of the corner of his eye. 

"Shinji?" she started.

"Yeah?" 

"Did you take a shower last night?" she asked as she narrowed an accusatory gaze in his direction.

"Umm, well," he started to stammer. 

"Eeeeewwwwwwww!" She gave him a light shove away from her. She pointed in the direction of the bathroom and shouted, "Shower! Now!"

"But Asuka, I…" he started to protest. What was she thinking? Its not like he didn't want to take a shower, but he didn't have time to do it, not if he was going to make their lunches. 

"No 'buts' Baka! I am not going to walk to school with you while you smell like that." She punctuated her argument by shaking a fist in Shinji's direction. Seeing that Shinji was too dumbfounded to move on his own, she helped him along by pushing him out of the kitchen. 

* * *

"And so, using LCL as a delivery medium the nano-machines quickly adhere to the targeted cells and begin activating dormant…"

"Thank you doctor", The commander interjected. "That will be all."

Keel stopped her presentation, slightly annoyed at having been interrupted, "If you will allow me to finish my presentation, I'm sure you'll see the numerous benefits that can be wrought from this. Cures for virtually all mental disorders and diseases, not to mention future application in other areas of medicine."

"Doctor, Nerv was created to defend earth against the angels. We do not have the time nor the resources to expend on scientific crusades, no matter how noble the intent." Gendo picked up the folder in front of him thumbing through to the. 

"Commander, if you would just open your eyes."

"In addition, I find it disturbing how quickly you wish to progress to human testing, especially considering some of your earlier… efforts."

Keel was seething. That bastard. He had the gall to bring up the work she had done as a student. The technology had progressed so much since then, and with the knowledge she had gained from working with the Evangelions and the remains of the defeated angels, there was no doubt in her mind that her treatment was ready for human testing.

__

I'll test it on myself if it comes to that… 

"Thank you for your time Doctor Keel." The Commander stated flatly 

Doctor Keel looked to Ritsuko for some kind of support, but the doctor just shook her head and gave Henrietta a apologetic look. Keel gave her colleague a betrayed glare and stormed out of the room. 

Ritsuko gave a regretful sigh and turned to the Commanders "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Sub-commander, Commander." She addressed Ikari with a little more scorn than she had Fuyutsuki, then she left. 

"A little less than tactful," Fuyutsuki commented after Akagi had left. "You could have allowed her to finish her presentation."

"I think I gave her more than enough time to make her case, and I knew what she had I mind long before she started her proposal." Gendo said as he interlaced his fingers beneath his mouth. "I've already looked into her background, and I was less than impressed with her track record. There were multiple lawsuits for malpractice pending against her for several years. And her own psychological profile shows her to have an obsessive personality. She may be intelligent, but her obsessions blind her to the consequences of her actions." 

"Fairly hypocritical of you some might say."

Ikari said nothing, but gave the sub-commander an annoyed 'humph'. 

* * *

Asuka and Shinji managed to arrive a few minutes before the teacher. Shinji was immediately grabbed by both Kensuke and Touji, which left Asuka free to talk to Hikari.

That was if Hikari was still willing to talk to her…

Hikari was sitting at her desk, staring at the wall, as she had been since Asuka had entered the class. Asuka approached her cautiously.

"Hikari?" she said softly. She couldn't look Hikari in the face, and just stared out into the class. "Hikari, I… I just wanted to say… you were right." 

Asuka mentally slapped herself the moment the words were out of her mouth. She had been meaning to apologize to Hikari for blowing up on her the other day, but for some reason the words just wouldn't come out of her mouth. 

"Asuka?" she looked down and Hikari was looking back at her, smiling softly. "It okay, I know its not a comfortable subject to talk about." 

"Thanks Hikari, I know it can't be easy having me as a friend."

"Yeah," Hikari sighed exhaustedly, "but I think its been worth it."

Asuka smiled at her best friend, glad to have someone who understood her just a little. 

"So," Hikari said leaning forward towards Asuka, "what are you planning to do?"

"What makes you think I'm planning anything?" Asuka asked innocently.

"The smile on your face is a dead giveaway," Hikari teased. "Besides, I have a feeling you've already done something, given the good mood you seem to be in. Now, spill." 

Asuka sighed and opened up her schoolbag just enough for Hikari to see inside. There were two bentos laying side-by-side in her bag. Asuka giggled at the shocked look on Hikari's face.

"I already made breakfast this morning," she whispered, blushing slightly, "and I thought I'd surprise him by making lunch."

"Wow," Hikari said, who was still trying to get over her astonishment when the teacher walked in. She reflexively sprung to her feet and shouted "Rise! Bow! Sit!" leaving Asuka to scramble back to her own desk as yet another boring lecture began. 

* * *

Henrietta stormed into her office and slammed the door behind her. She paced back and forth in front of her desk, seething. With a sudden outraged scream, she threw a snow globe that rested on her desk against the door, covering it in water and purple glitter. She fell against her desk, her breath hissing through her gritted teeth. 

"Yeah, Ikari can really get to you that way."

Keel whirled on the voice. A man stood in a dark corner of her office, leaning against a file cabinet nonchalantly. He was tall and unshaven, and wore his dark hair in a ponytail. 

"You're lucky that Ikari either doesn't notice or doesn't care about family connections, otherwise he would be keeping better tabs on you." 

"What are you doing in my office?" she snarled, aggravated at the intrusion.

"Just passing through," he said before taking a drink from a can of espresso, then tossing the can over her desk and into the wastebasket. "I just thought I'd give you a warning, don't do anything your going to regret."

"Ikari's the only one who's going to regret this," she said.

"I suggest you drop whatever it is your planning," he warned her. "it's a dangerous game you've been playing so far. Trust me, I know. You don't want to go and make this thing personal."

He walked towards the door, carefully stepping over the broken glass that littered the floor. He picked up a figurine from the floor of a little girl with red hair and a pink dress. "And try to control that temper of yours. Sometimes there are children around." 

* * *

Asuka had searched the entire schoolyard for Shinji, with no luck. Realizing she had no other choice, she lowered herself to 'conversing' with his two pervert friends. 

She approached Touji and Kensuke. "Idiot," she glanced at Kensuke, "lesser idiot. Where's the third stooge at?"

"What's it to you, Devil-girl?" Touji said, crossing his arms in defiance, staring down the red-haired menace with all the loathing he could muster.

"Not that its any of your business," turning he face away in abhorrence, "but Baka-Shinji forgot his lunch this morning." 

"Well, as you can see, he's not here right now." Kensuke declared.

"Yeah, and there's no loitering allowed 'round here." Touji added.

"Obviously no such rule about littering or you two pieces of refuse wouldn't be here," Asuka countered, sneering at the jock. "Look, will you two dolts just make sure he gets his lunch?"

Touji nodded curtly and took the bento she handed to him. She walked off to where she and Hikari usually ate tense with irritation at having to deal with the lesser two stooges. As she left, Kensuke glanced at the Bento. 

"Wasn't Shinji complaining that Asuka was going to kill him for forgetting to make their lunches today?" Kensuke inquired.

"Yeah, but then where did this come from?" The jock asked.

"Obviously it was the devil's doing, so we can be sure that whatever inside can't be good for Shinji." 

"Yeah, she must have done something to the food," Touji said, opening the bento and scrutinizing a piece of sushi. 

"Probably loaded down his food with way too much pepper, or salt, or maybe concentrated wasabi…" Kensuke rambled on as his friend sniffed at the sushi.

"Or! She could have gotten hold of some poisonous blowfish and made the sushi out of that!" Kensuke shouted. Touji froze in mid chew, gulped nervously then, realizing he had just swallowed said sushi, began clutching at his throat making a horrible retching sound. 

"You know what? Asuka's right about one thing." Kensuke stated as Toiji stared at him with a panic-stricken look. "You are an idiot." 

Kensuke calmly took a drink from his can of juice. Touji made a mental note that if he was going to die, at least he would be able to enjoy haunting Kensuke for the rest of his days. _Then again_, he though as a grin spread across his face, _there was something to be said about haunting the girls' locker room._

Kensuke looked at his friend apprehensively, wondering for a moment if he might have been right about the blowfish poison, "Um, Touji? You're drooling all over Shinji's lunch..."

* * *

Asuka was less than enthusiastic about giving the lunch she had made to those two morons. She had wanted to give it to Shinji personally so she could see the look on his face, but at least she had tried. 

__

Anyways, she thought, _I'll still get to see him when I get home._

She smiled as she went to find Hikari so they could eat their own lunches. She was glad she had thought about what Hikari had said. It actually felt good to be doing nice things for Shinji. 

But as it is with most things, the way her day had progressed was about to change. 

She rounded the corner to see Shinji, sitting on a bench in the shade, eating a school bought lunch.

He was sitting with Ayanami.

They were talking.

They were eating.

Baka-Shinji and Rei were sitting on a bench eating lunch, together. 

__

Wondergirl is having lunch with MY Shinji! 

Asuka fought the urge to storm over and tear the two away from one another, fought the urge to go over and slap Shinji across the face. She realized that she had no reason to call him 'her Shinji', after all, they had never really done anything together. It was obvious now that he liked Rei better. They were sitting together and eating lunch. What had she and Shinji ever done together? Only kissed.

And that wasn't even a real kiss…

Asuka did the only thing she felt was left as an option now. 

She ran away.


	4. Now There Is No Choice

Author's Notes- Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I appreciate the feedback. Due to some of the feedback, I have added and changed some scenes in this chapter and in future ones. Not even my pre-readers have seen these changes yet, as they read this chapter long before I received any reviews on the last one. (Remember, you CAN make a difference!)

As for the character of Henrietta J. Keel, her family connections will be explained in later chapters. Her name is actually based on Henry Jekyll, the protagonist from _Jekyll and Hyde_. The fact that my butchering of the original name caused it to resemble that of another character was a happy act of chance, and would help me to find a motivation for her actions and a place for her in the story. I needed a scientist character to perform the medical experiment on Shinji, and I was not going to use Doctor Akagi. (I briefly considered having Shinji steal the treatment and medicating himself, but decided that this was far too stupid, even for Baka-Shinji.)

Again, reviews, advice input and pocky of any kind is appreciated. (Note-all pocky will be forwarded to my pre-readers to be sacrificed to the great Mallut, who's bludgeoning vengeance punishes all bakas who break their word to update.) 

Notes on Language- I plan to primarily use English for speech in this story, except for moments when someone speaks in a 'foreign' language, such as German. I will use Japanese only when I do not feel that the English equivalent works well enough, such as "Okonomiyaki", "Ramen" or "Bento". 

P.S. Asuka will still refer to Shinji as "Baka", as I feel that it is used more as a proper noun.

Disclaimer- I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde.

By the time Hikari finally left the classroom, it was already several minutes into the lunch period. Normally she would eat lunch with Asuka, but she wanted to give Asuka time alone with Shinji and had stayed behind. She hadn't yet eaten, and was beginning to have second thoughts about leaving Asuka alone. 

Shinji would probably be eating with Touji and Kensuke, and Asuka might need some backup. So, resolving herself, she headed out, the sunlight blinding her as she stepped outside. It took a while for her eyes to adjust, so was only able to see a flash of red go past her, which she instantly recognized.

She turned as her eyes finally began to adapt, following Asuka as she headed back toward the school. "Hey, Asuka. Where are you going?" 

"Not now Hikari…"

"Asuka, wh…"

"I SAID, 'NOT NOW'!" Asuka shouted as she spun on her friend. 

Hikari flinched as Asuka turned on her. She had known Asuka long enough to know the redhead had a fiery temper, though it was not often that she herself had witnessed it nor been the recipient of it. But it wasn't the sudden outburst that hit Hikari the hardest.

It was the tears hanging at the corners of Asuka's eyes, threatening to fall at any moment. 

The anger on Asuka's face melted as she looked at Hikari's startled expression. Hikari could see the regret in Asuka's eyes as the girl opened her mouth to speak, struggling to say that she was sorry in any way that she could, but no words could made it past her pride and out her mouth. Finally the strain became too much and Asuka ran to the lavatory before her friend saw her crying. 

Hikari just stood there, stunned. She had NEVER seen Asuka cry. It could still be argued that she hadn't, and most likely would be, IF she was ever crazy enough to mention it to Asuka later. But the fact remained, something had upset Asuka enough that she had been on the verge of tears. Rei wasn't at school and at the moment Hikari could think of only three others that could make Asuka that upset…

She turned an marched back the direction that Asuka had come from, heading strait to where the 'Three Stooges' were having lunch, her teeth grinding together as she homed in on her target. 

…and only one of them had even a remote chance of making Asuka cry. 

The three of them paused their conversation as a shadow fell over them. Shinji turned as Touji sputtered out an "Umm.. hi class rep." through a mouthful of rice.

Hikari towered over the Third Child, her hands on her hips, her silhouetted face betraying no emotion as she looked down at him, though her voice was positively frigid as she addressed him.

"Shinji, could I have a word with you?"

"Umm….sure, just a second?"

"No, now!" 

Shinji yelped and Touji and Kensuke cringed in sympathy as the class rep dragged him off, her delicate fingers clamped to his ear like a pneumatic vice. 

Touji whistled low as he suppressed a shudder. "Man! What did Shinji do to get the rep so steamed?" 

"Must have been good. Usually only YOU are stupid enough to make Hikari THAT mad.

"Yea…HEY! I'll have you know I've been on my best behavior lately!" 

"That's not saying much." Kensuke muttered. 

"Anyways," Touji said, giving his friend a quick, sideways glare, "Like I was saying earlier, I think Hikari has been spending way too much time with the Red-Headed Demon. She's starting to act like her." Both boys nodded in unison, and offered up a quick prayer that their friend would make it through the day in one piece.

Shinji managed to keep up with Hikari so that he no longer had to worry about his ear being torn from his head, but he only managed to achieve an awkward, leaning, and rather painful hobble. Once she had managed to drag him around the corner, she released her grip on his ear and turned on him.

"Okay, Shinji," she whispered in a voice that was almost a yell. "I want to know what you said to Asuka."

"What?" he asked, rubbing his ear.

"Don't play dumb with me Ikari!" she hissed through clenched teeth. "You had to have done something!" 

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Hikari," Shinji whispered back, a note of fear in his voice, more confused now than ever.

"Really?" Hikari reacted skeptically. "Then why did she just run past me crying?"

"W… what?" Shinji was staggered. Asuka? Crying? Asuka never cries. He had only seen Asuka cry once, and she had been asleep at the time. 

"I don't know what you did Shinji, but you should at least apologize to her," Hikari was finally starting to calm down. "Especially after she gave you that lunch."

"Asuka's Lunch?" Shinji asked, confused.

"What? Was it not good enough for the Great Shinji Ikari?" Hikari asked, inadvertently doing a fairly good Asuka impression. "So? What's your excuse?"

"Hikari, I haven't talked to Asuka since this morning," Shinji replied. 

"Oh, god, Shinji, I thought…," Hikari stammered, suddenly embarrassed be how she had acted. "I'm sorry! I thought you'd done something…" 

"Hikari, really its okay," he gave her a reassuring smile. "but I don't know what you're talking about. I bought my lunch today"

"You mean she never gave it to you?" now it was Hikari's turn to be confused. "But, I saw her? She was running from where you were sitting with…"

Her eyes narrowed as she traced a path through the wall and extrapolated the positions of Kensuke and Touji. "Ooooh! It must have been those two perverts."

"Don't be too hard on them Hikari," Shinji pleaded. "They just don't understand Asuka. Do you know where she went?"

"Yeah, but I don't think you'll be able to talk to her just yet," Hikari said as she pointed past the benches towards a door. "She went that way, towards the girls' bathroom."

Shinji visibly paled, though Hikari didn't notice as she was thinking of what would be appropriate punishment for the two morons. She only looked when Shinji placed a hand on her arm to stop her when she started to leave. He hung his head, "Don't. It wasn't them. It… she saw… I was eating lunch… with Rei…"

"Oh no…" Hikari knew that Asuka did not get along well with the other pilot in their class.

"She saw me when I was buying lunch and asked if she could talk with me. We were sitting on that bench over there" he said, nodding towards a bench that was partially in the shade of a tree. "Asuka must have seen us together when we were talking." 

Shinji slumped against the wall, as Hikari sorted out what he had just told her. Unlike her feelings towards Shinji, Asuka made it no secret how she felt about Rei. Hikari knew how SHE would feel if she saw another girl eating with…

Look, Shinji," Hikari tried to cheer him up. "I'll try to smooth things over with Asuka, but you'll have to talk to her and apologize. Give her a little time to cool down, but don't take too long or it will just make things worse."

"Apologize for what?" he murmured to himself. "I didn't do anything." 

The words sounded ironic the moment he voiced them. He was always apologizing for something. When had he ever needed a reason before. Of course, Asuka hated it when he apologized. But, then again, she hated a lot of the things he did.

"Shinji, I know…" Hikari paused when Shinji didn't look up, and didn't appear to be listening. "Shinji?"

Seeing that he wasn't responding, Hikari took a deep breath.

"Pilot Ikari! Look at me when I'm talking!" He immediately snapped back to awareness, calming considerably when he saw the soft smile on Hikari's face. "Look Shinji, I know that it may not seem that way, but Asuka really likes you." 

__

Even if that were true, she has a funny way of showing it, Shinji thought. Despite how he felt about her, he knew Asuka could never care for a spineless wimp like him. 

But why had she been acting so strange today? If Hikari was right, it would make a weird kind of sense, though he could not understand what Asuka could possibly see in him. It had hurt knowing she didn't like him, especially with how he felt about her, but it was something he could live with. But what if she did like him? It was a thought that he could not just disregard. He had to know.

But to find out, he had to talk to Asuka. 

And that scared him more than anything.

* * *

Asuka slammed the door of the apartment shut. She had worked the tears out of her system a while ago, and was now content to use inanimate objects. She tried to be angry with Shinji, Rei, even Hikari, but she found she could only be angry with herself. She had waited too long. 

She stormed to her room, slamming that door shut as well. She plopped onto her bed, and, finding her pillow was not soft enough for her taste, fluffed it with a few satisfying punches. 

Why?

She stared at the wall, her back to the door. She still could not understand why she had even bothered to try and be nice to Baka-Shinji. Everything she had done had been for nothing. She could just imagine Shinji and the other two stooges talking about her. She was certain all three had gotten a good laugh over her embarrassment. 

And worst of all, she had been bested by Rei. What did Shinji see in her anyways? She was quiet, never talked to anyone. She was ever obedient, never questioning orders, always doing what she was told. The pretty, perfect little doll. Is that the kind of girl Shinji likes?

Even as a tear rolled down across her cheek, she uttered a brief snort of laughter at the absurdity of it. It was so stupid to be crying over something as trivial as this. She should be glad she had found out what kind of girls Shinji really liked before she had wasted any more time on him, even though it had felt good wasting time on him._ If Shinji likes to play with dolls, then Wondergirl can have him. Its not like I actually liked him…_

As she drifted off to sleep, she tried to list all the things in her mind that she truly could not stand about Shinji, anything to convince herself to dislike the boy. 

But her list was not nearly long enough, no matter how hard she tried to hate the boy, and her thoughts still rested on Shinji as sleep finally claimed her.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Shinji knocked lightly on Asuka's door, some part of him hoping she wouldn't hear him and allow him to just walk away. He had been arguing with himself about whether or not he was going to go through with this. He was still arguing with himself.

There was no response from inside Asuka's room, and Shinji almost walked away, but he forced himself to stay. He knocked again, a little louder this time. He could hear rustling from behind the door, and a few moments later the door opened. 

Asuka looked at him, slightly annoyed at having been disturbed, but her expression remained surprisingly neutral. "What do you want, Shinji?"

"Umm… I… I just wanted to talk to you," he stammered. "About the lunch you made for me."

"Oh, that," she said, trailing off for a moment, her eyes going distant before regaining her composure and looking at him. "It was nothing important. Just forget it"

"But Asuka, I wanted to say I was sorr.." 

She cut him off before he could even finish his apology. "Sorry? What's there to be sorry for? Its not as if it was anything important. If you'd rather spend lunch with Wondergirl, it doesn't matter to me."

"But I…" 

"Look Shinji, it's no big deal. I woke up too early and I was bored. Its not like there is anything better to do around here in the mornings." 

"Asuka?"

"Look, don't try to make more out of this than there is." she said, getting ready to close the door on him. "It was just a stupid lunch."

And the door was closed.

Had he waited too long.

He had been avoiding this ever since Hikari had talked to him. He had taken every excuse he could, all because he had been afraid of talking to the girl. He had put it off for three days before he worked up enough spine to knock on her door.

But what had hurt the most was the far-off look in Asuka's eyes, that moment when he could see how hurt she really was, despite what she had said. 

Those few days he had waited had been all the time Asuka's mind had needed to seal those openings in her heart on its own, to close herself off from the world again. He had blown the one chance he might have had with Asuka because he had evaded the eventual encounter like a coward.

And yet, he was still to afraid to do anything to mend the situation.

As he stood there, staring at Asuka's door, Shinji found he could only utter one word to himself, used so often in reference to him, that now seemed to suit him perfectly.

"…Baka…"

* * *

The steady ticking of the clock echoed through the room, like a sledgehammer on an iron spike, digging deeper and deeper into her skull.

Needless to say, Henrietta Keel was not really in the best of moods. Part of her current disposition was to be blamed upon the nearly fatal blow that had been dealt to her project. With no official sanctioning by Nerv, she would have to continue her research in secret and without the proper resources, a setback which she placed the blame solely on Gendo Ikari.

Which, of course led to the second cause of her negative frame of mind. 

"So," she said, trying to remain as cheerful as she possibly could, "how's school, Shinji?" 

Shinji shrugged his shoulders. "Its ok, I guess." 

Henrietta couldn't help but draw conclusions about the boy upon meeting him, after all, he was the Commander's son. Despite that, she tried to remain as impartial as she possibly could. She needed all the information she could gather if she was going to do her job right.

"No problems with any of your classes?"

"No. Not really."

Keel had tried to get the boy to open up and say something, anything, but he brushed off every question she asked with non-committal answers. The boy seemed unwilling to talk about anything, which was making her job more difficult. She had taken the liberty of performing a psych exam of all pilots, something that should have been routine, but had apparently been overlooked by command.

Overlooked, she though, _or Ikari didn't want anyone to find out what emotional wrecks his pilots were_. Just looking over their files, she could see why Ritsuko had suggested it. She had already met with the two girls, which had been a draining experience to say the least. 

Pilot Ayanami was even more introverted than Shinji, if that were possible, and almost as talkative. From what she had been able to gather, the girl had virtually no friends at school or at Nerv. She displayed an almost complete lack of feeling, her emotional growth severely stunted by some form of trauma. It was entirely possible that Rei had been physically or emotionally abused as a child, and reading who had raised her and what she had been raised to do. 

Keel stopped just short of ordering a suicide watch be place on the first child. Though she knew the strong sense of duty she possessed was the only thing keeping the girl alive, she found it sickening to think that her loyalty was directed to the man who was likely the source of the girl's suffering.

Probably the most 'normal' of all the pilots, Miss Sohryu was still a psychiatric goldmine. Unlike Shinji's approach of evading the doctors questions, Asuka would flat-out deny anything was wrong. Her barriers would take some time to break through, and Henrietta was not sure that she could be the person to do it, especially when it took all her self-control not to reach out and strangle the girl. She had already made a list of outside councilors that might have a better chance at helping the girl. 

Of course, both she and Shinji reminded Keel why she decided to never have children.

"Any problems at home?"

"No, everything is… ok."

Finally seeing an opening in his hesitation, Keel exploited it, and pursued the subject. "Really? I would think that it would be hard. I mean, your father IS the Commander?

Shinji winced a little at that last remark. "I… I wouldn't really know. I don't live with my father."

"Oh?" Now THAT had been unexpected. She had not seen anything about this in his file, or perhaps she had not reviewed it carefully enough. Whatever the reason, she now had at least a small insight into the character of Shinji Ikari. 

"I can understand how difficult it can be to get along with parents," Keel said, which was true. "I haven't spoken with my own father in a long time."

The last time she had actually seen him face-to-face was a few years after Second Impact. The old man had undergone surgery at Stanford to replace his ailing vision with an electronic substitute, so he hadn't really been able to 'see' her. He barely spoke to her for five minutes before departing for Germany again. 

She had received a few letters since then, but always in response to something she had written. He was always too busy with his work. Of course, She didn't speak to him much even before Second Impact, not since he had divorced her mother. 

"What about your mother?" she asked.

Her own mother hadn't fared well after the divorce, and the anxiety after Second Impact pushed her over the edge. Now, at fifty-nine years old, she was confined to a mental asylum, her home for the past decade.

"She… died when I was little. Father left not long after that." He replied quietly.

"You don't have to talk about your parents if you don't want to," Keel said, sidestepping, for now at least, what was obviously a touchy subject for both of them, "I need to know about you. I want to hear more about your home life."

It took a little more prompting, but after a few minutes Henrietta actually had gotten Shinji to start talking. There were some things he didn't want to talk about, such as his relationship with his father, but he opened up quite a bit. He mentioned his friends from school, talked for quite a bit about living with Major Katsuragi and Pilot Sohryu. Another surprise. 

His problems with the second child were possibly the most important thing they discussed that day, though Shinji was again reluctant to speak. More than anything, he was disinclined to say anything unkind about the girl, but he always seemed to come back to that particular topic. After hearing him dance around the subject for a while, and hearing what had happened between the two children a few days prior, Keel was starting to see a recurring theme in Shinji's life. 

After a particularly long pause, Keel interjected, "Shinji, why do you have such a hard time dealing with people?"

"Huh? I…" he stared off into space, as if the answer her question was caught somewhere between the air molecules in the office. 

Keel put down her notepad and took a drink from her coffee mug, the contents of which were now lukewarm. It had been scalding hot when they had started. Had it really been that long? 

"I guess I'm just not easy for people to like." He finally stated.

"I don't think that is the problem," She said, putting down her mug. "Shinji, why did it take you so long to finally talk to Miss Sohryu?" 

"I don't know. I guess I was nervous," He mumbled, leaning forward in his chair. 

"Just nervous? Shinji, if you aren't willing to admit your problem, then there is nothing you can do to solve it."

He sat there, staring at the floor. For several minutes he did not talk "I was running away."

"Do you know why you run away?" Keel did not wait for Shinji to respond this time, instead supplying him with the answer to her question. "You are afraid."

Shinji had to admit, what she had said was right. He had been afraid, afraid that Asuka would reject him, despite the assurances Hikari had given him. He had let his fears stand in his way for far too long. So he asked the doctor, "How do I stop running away?"

Keel stood and walked over to her desk, taking out a file folder, "That's up to you, Shinji.

"If it weren't for the fact that you were a pilot, I would recommend you for a new treatment program we've been working on," she sighed, "but I'm afraid the Commander would never allow it." 

"What kind of treatment?" Shinji asked, curious why his father would not allow pilots to participate.

"It's a combination of treatments actually, but I'm afraid its not an option," she paused, "unfortunately."

"Why not?" 

"Well," she opened up the folder and leafed through it, "you would have been a perfect candidate, if it weren't for your age and your important line of work. We'll just have to work together to solve your problems the old fashioned way. It may take some time, but I promise I'll do everything I can to help you through this, eventually."

Keel could almost see the gears spinning in Shinji's head, as he tried to think of a way past this obstacle on his own. She had not told Shinji the whole truth. Virtually anyone would have been a perfect candidate, so long as they showed signs of an adverse mental state. Shinji's case was a relatively mild one, but in his mind it was a debilitating condition. Now she could only wait and hope she was right about how he would react to the idea of waiting so long to see results.

"Wh… what if I didn't tell anyone?" he asked.

"Shinji, do you really understand what you are asking? If anyone, ANYONE, found out that I administered this treatment to you, I could lose my job, my medical license. Hell, I could be arrested!" She took the folder and locked it away in her desk drawer. "No, its out of the question. Even if I didn't lose my job, it wouldn't be right to do this to a child."

"Doctor Keel, please. I can't keep running away from my fears," he pleaded. "I'll take the risk." 

"Shinji," she looked directly at him, staring him in the eyes, "This has to be your decision, and yours alone. Once we start, there will be no going back." 

Keel bit her lip in anticipation of his answer, wondering if she had goaded enough backbone out of the boy to make him take the chance. "Its your choice, Shinji."

But in Shinji's mind, there was no choice. 

"When do we start?"


	5. The First Transformation

Authors Notes- Ok, working on the assumption that Shinji's room has a window. I can't remember and I can't find a copy of the floor plan anywhere (well, one, but it did not seem accurate). If anyone knows the layout of the apartment better, any help you could give would be appreciated. Thanks to my pre-readers and everyone who reviewed. 

Disclaimer- I do not own _Neon Genesis Evangelion _or _Jekyll and Hyde_.

It had taken a little work, but Keel had managed to get Shinji's full medical files, including the data related to his piloting gathered by Doctor Akagi. She managed to convince one of Doctor Akagi's assistants that it necessary to properly evaluate the children. Of course she had requested the files for Pilots Ayanami and Sohryu, in order to keep up the illusion. 

Ignoring the files for the first and second children, Keel immersed herself in the data from all the tests that had been run on the third, every blood sample, MRI, all the data gathered from the synch and harmonics tests, and the psychographs from all Shinji's battles. 

None of the information was necessary to implement the treatment. That was what made it such an extraordinary breakthrough. The nano-machines were self guiding, making their decisions independently, but the data was necessary to determine whether or not the treatment had been successful. 

The files about Shinji's past were quite interesting, especially considering his abandonment by his father. A facet of life she shared with the boy, though he became weak because of it. She, on the other hand, had grown stronger. Her will was more resilient than anything the world could throw at her. 

Personally, she would have preferred someone with a more pronounced condition, where it would be much easier to notice the changes, but the need for secrecy made that option impossible. Shinji's social detachment would actually prove useful, as no one would notice the changes until it was done. 

And if something went wrong? Well, it was Commander Ikari's fault that she had to resort to such measures. Almost fitting that the first patient should be his son. A harsh rationalization, she knew, but it was all the reason she needed to continue.

She looked up at the dozens of schematics of the nano-machines that adorned the walls of her apartment. Schematics for a machine built from the remains of the eleventh angel, programmed with artificial intelligence modeled on the Magi supercomputer. A machine beautiful in both its simplicity and its complexity.

Machines that now swarmed in the bloodstream of Shinji Ikari.

She had not told him the exact nature of the treatment. The boy would probably faint if he knew that millions of angel-based machines were drifting through his body. All he knew was that she had injected him with a medicine, and that he had to ingest a catalyzing agent to put it into action. 

Keel smiled, leaning back in her chair. If everything continued as planned, Shinji would be ingesting the final part of the treatment: a second dose of active nano-machines suspended in LCL, which would activate the dormant nano-machines spread throughout his body. 

__

Now the die is cast, nothing left to do.

Time alone can prove my theories true.

Show the world… 

* * *

Kaji smiled, leaning back in his chair. So far so good. If everything continued as planned, Doctor Keel would be too busy working with the children to have any thoughts of retribution against Ikari. It wasn't that he cared about the Commander's life, in fact he wouldn't mind being the one to put the bastard out of his misery, but the old men still had some use for him, and until he had more insight into what was going on, he would keep up the façade of the obedient little spy. 

Having Chairman Keel's daughter on the Nerv payroll had been an unexpected complication. Even Keel himself had no idea that his offspring had been transferred from Britain to Tokyo-3, at least until Kaji had informed him of the development. The Chairman had shown little interest in the news, outside of inquiring on her well being.

The best thing for the good doctor, would be to keep her so busy that she would have no time to devote to additional schemes, and giving the children a psychological assessment would be time-consuming for a team of psychiatrists. He was glad Ritsuko had made the passing comment on the mental stability of the pilots, which had made it much easier for him to suggest getting them a therapist, 'jokingly' of course. 

Still, he genuinely hoped Keel would be able to find some way of helping the kids. They had already dealt with so much in their short lives, and needed someone to help them. 

He shut down his computer, not bothering to save the game which made him appear to be goofing off at work. He put on his jacket and grabbed an umbrella before turning off the lights and locking the door behind him. There was a good chance it was going to storm tonight.

* * *

Shinji turned on his desk lamp and pulled out the journal the doctor had given him. He needed to take careful notes of everything he felt, emotionally and physically. He had no idea what she wanted, but he didn't want to make any mistakes, so he was going to try and record everything he could think of. 

He took a deep breath to calm himself, and prepare for what was to come. Doctor Keel had warned him that he would feel a momentary elevation in his body temperature, perhaps a little pain in his extremities, but that it would pass after a moment. But a little pain was a small price to pay if it would help him get over his chronic lack of a backbone. 

He looked back at his door, half expecting Misato to slide it open and check in on him like she had so many times before. He had never had anything he wanted to hide before, and for the first time he wished he had installed a lock on his door like Asuka had done on hers. He listened, and heard nothing but silence. He shook his head and pulled a small vial from his bag. Asuka was almost certainly asleep by now and Misato was probably still passed out on the kitchen table with a Yebisu clutched in her hand. 

He sighed. There was no point in putting it off any longer. He had already made his decision and the doctor had injected him with the first half of the treatment. She had told him to wait at least five hours to allow the formulae to evenly distribute through his body before ingesting the catalyst. He looked at the tiny plastic vial, the liquid inside glowing a dull but deep red. A label on the side gave the volume and name of the contents. 

Steeling himself, he pulled the cap off. Taking a page out of Misato's book, he downed the contents in one swig, only instead of a ecstatic whoop, Shinji began to cough on the foul-tasting liquid. _I Probably would have done the same if it had been a Yebisu_, he though, and picked up the pencil.

11:58 P.M. It is done. I have consumed 10 cc's of formula HJ-7. Salty, metallic taste, like LCL. It stings my tongue. Warmth spreading quickly through my body.

Slight feeling of euphoria. Lightheadedness. 

Shinji chuckled lightly as he leaned back in his chair, almost tipping himself over as he enjoyed the giddy sensation. He pulled himself upright as the dizziness passed and, grinning like an idiot, continued writing. 

__

No noticeable behavioral differences.

Shinji could really feel the heat now. In fact it was getting uncomfortably warm. He stood, walked over to the window and opened it, enjoying the cool night air. It was cloudy tonight, and he could smell the impending rain upon the breeze. _A little lightning, and this would be perfect mad scientist weather_, he thought.

As if on cue, there was a flash in the distance, followed shortly by the low rumble of thunder. Shinji suddenly had the urge to cackle maniacally, but wisely ignored it. The last thing he needed was Asuka to stomp in and beat him senseless. 

_Asuka… _He was still ashamed with himself after treating her the way he had. He couldn't even think about her without feeling regret. _Asuka, I should have said something sooner. I'm sor…DAMN IT! She's right! I _am_ spineless! I can't even _think_ without apologizing!_ Well, if everything worked out the way the doctor said it would, that wouldn't be a problem anymore. 

How will it be? Will I see the world though different eyes?

A sharp pain in his left arm caught Shinji by surprise, nearly driving him to the floor. As he looked on, his left hand began to shake, the muscles in his arm twitching uncontrollably. 

__

My god… What's this?

His fist was clenching and unclenching rapidly, he tried to force it open but the pain in doing so only made the worse. His chest was on fire as his heartbeat began to echo in his ears. 

__

Something is happening. I can't explain.

Something inside me, a breathtaking pain, 

Devours, consumes me, and drives me insane!!!

He cried out in agony and… rage?… raising his hand into the air as the clouds rumbled and roared, drowning out his voice. It clenched into a fist one last time as it brought itself down onto his desk, right on top of a picture of Asuka, Misato and himself, shattering the glass. His hand swung across the desk, knocking the journal and everything nearby to the floor.

Shinji started to laugh and scream at the same time, but he was silenced by another wave of agony shooting through his body.

__

Suddenly! Uncontrolled! 

Something is taking hold!

He no longer had any influence over his left arm, the cramping and twitching slowly spreading upwards and into his body. He fell to the floor as the pain knocked his knees out from under him. His stomach churned, and he felt as though he was going to be sick.

__

Suddenly! AGONY!

Filling me! KILLING ME!

He managed to crawl on his knees using his one good arm to drag himself out of his room and into the bathroom. The pain was now like a knife in his gut, a burning agony spreading along his bones and across his skin. He couldn't get enough air, and his vision slowy began to go black, and he felt as though he was losing himself to the darkness.

__

Suddenly, Out of breath.

What is this? Is this death? 

His hand grabbed the countertop, pulling himself up to stare into the mirror.

__

Suddenly, look at me.

Can it be?

Who is this …creature… that I see?

There was a hissing intake of breath as he stared at his reflection. "Free…," he breathed.

He laughed. A low, quiet rumbling from the depths of his soul, echoing through the small room.

The click of a lock being turned grabbed his attention . It came from down the hall. He darted back to his room and headed for the open window. Stopping to grab the journal, he made one final note, muttering the words to himself before shoving the journal into the satchel. Looking up, he winced as the bright light of the lamp struck his eyes. He smirked as he reached for it, "Sorry. I forgot to turn off the light…" 


	6. Alive

Authors Notes- This was a tough chapter to write, as it is the first truly dark chapter in the story. I did not have a chance to send it out for pre-reading, so I hope I didn't overlook anything. There is a lot about this chapter I would like to explain, but I think it would be better to wait until the next chapter rather than spoil things. Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed. 

Disclaimer- I do not own Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde

Asuka woke to the sound of thunder. She sat up as she listened to the still air around her as the rumbling faded away. She would never admit it to anyone, she almost wouldn't admit it to herself, but she really, really, really didn't like thunder. She wasn't afraid of it, no way, what was there to be afraid of but a little static electricity built up between the earth and the clouds discharging and creating a shockwave that shook the windows and walls of the apartment, worming its way through the air and causing her to shake in turn.

But she was not afraid.

Another crash of thunder rang through the apartment, and Asuka found herself clutching the blanket around her as she shivered. 

__

Stupid Misato, she thought. _Why does she have to keep this place so cold?_

She sat up, clutching the blanket around her shoulders like a cloak. She looked up as another peal of thunder rumbled through the walls. _Shinji!_

Asuka sat in the darkness confused. Now why would she think of that idiot now? If anyone would be afraid of thunder it was that wimp. She could picture it now, Shinji curled up in his blankets, his SDAT clutched in one hand as he tried to drown out the sound, his dark hair slightly askew, his lips slightly parted as he slept, so tempting just to lean down and…. 

__

DAMMIT! Where the Hell did that come from?! Asuka mentally chided herself, shaking the image from her head. Why did she have to be cursed with such an amazingly meticulous imagination? Another side effect of greatness, she supposed. She tried to put all thoughts 

Another blast of thunder took her by surprise and made her jump. Accompanying the crash was a low pulsing noise, something that was totally out of place in the apartment in the middle of the night.

__

Laughing?

It was very quiet, and only lasted for a moment, but even through the thunder Asuka could swear she had heard someone laughing. She quickly unlocked her door and opened it, padding lightly into the hallway. As her eyes tried to adjust to the darkness of the apartment, she ran her hand along the wall, stepping lightly to avoid tripping herself. She was starting to become concerned. She could hear speaking from Shinji's room but it was too quiet to make out what was being said. 

What worried her more, was she couldn't tell if it was Shinji that was speaking. She stopped outside his door still too far away to make out what was being said. 

What was going on? Has Baka-Shinji started talking to himself now? Asuka tried to convince herself that it was just another of her idiot roommate's annoying quirks, that she shouldn't be concerned. 

But a part of her knew that something was not right, and that there was good reason to be concerned. Her heart was beating loudly in her ears, and she could feel the blood pulsing through her neck. She noticed her breathing was becoming loud and panicked, like an animal fleeing from a predator. 

There was a loud crash and the light suddenly went out. Asuka jumped at the noise, pressing herself flat against the wall.

Fumbling along the wall she managed to find the switch, wincing as the hall light came on. The light spilled through the open door and into Shinji's room. A flash of lightning revealed the room in shambles, and highlighted by the narrow shaft of light from the hall lay a broken desk lamp and a shattered picture frame. 

There was blood clinging to the broken glass. 

The blanket fell on the floor at her feet.

Asuka stood the shaking in the doorway of the empty room, her silhouette touching the opened window, the cold air brushing past her. 

Her mouth opened and closed with silent words, her voice frozen in her throat. She saw the empty bed, the open window, things from Shinji's desk scattered across the floor, but her eyes kept coming back to the picture frame, to the line of blood that dripped between the images of her and Shinji. 

Deep, red blood. 

Shinji's blood? Where was Shinji? Was he hurt? Did someone hurt Shinji? What if he were… 

Finally, she found herself able to scream.

"MISATO! COME QUICK! SHINJI'S GONE!" 

* * *

A man dressed entirely in black stood outside, across the street from the apartment complex. It had started raining not long ago, but he was already soaked. 

"Why the hell did I get stuck outside in this weather?" he grumbled. He shivered underneath the coat. _Perpetual summer my ass, _He thought. _The rain must have missed that memo._

Edwards popped his knuckles, which were starting to ache in the cold rain. He tried to take shelter , but the black trench coat he wore did nothing to hold out the rain and instead held in the water it was supposed to protect him from. 

His radio hissed in his ear. "Edwards? You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." Finally, something to break the boredom.

"Team three reports all quiet from their post."

"Copy. I'm going to head inside and patrol the interior for a while"

There was a short pause before they responded. "Ramirez says to get her a coffee and Kimura wants a green tea. And see if you can find me a pastry of some kind, nothing too sugary. After you finish your 'patrol' of course."

Edwards grumbled, and headed inside the building. It was really pointless, as the entire place was empty, well, empty if the other shifts had done their job right.

He got a cup of black coffee from the vending machine on the ground floor, and had nearly finished it off in the elevator ride up to the top. He just began walking each hallway, taking the stairs down to the next floor when he was done. He paused when he got to the apartment directly below Major Katsuragi's. The door, which should have been sealed, was partly opened. 

The power to the apartment had been cut off to prevent anyone from unlocking it from the outside, but that didn't mean someone couldn't try and force it open, especially if they were forcing it from the inside. Someone like one of the young residents from the apartment above.

Edwards cursed under his breath. The last thing he needed was to be running around in the building at night chasing some runaway brat. Though, if it was, he might just thank the kid for keeping him out of the rain for a little while longer "Team one? This is Edwards."

"Go ahead Edwards. Have trouble finding the vending machines?"

"Isn't major Katsuragi's apartment the only one that's supposed to be occupied?

"Yes it is. You have a problem up there?"

"Probably just another squatter. No big deal. I'll just tell them to be out of here by morning."

"Good idea," Lieutenant Yamane replied. "It would be inhuman to send someone out in this weather. Which reminds me, Commander Ikari called and told us to get you back to your assigned post. Don't worry, I told him you were out kicking old ladies. That calmed him down a bit, but you better hurry back. He told Ramirez she could poison your next meal if you didn't get back with her coffee."

Edwards laughed at the joke, until he heard Ramirez in the background say, "Oh, I'd do it too." This was quickly followed by the laughter of the rest of the crew in the van.

Edwards keyed his mike again as he pushed the door of the darkened apartment further open. "Oh come on. Like she'd actually have the guts to do it."

There was a long silence over the mike. A cricket down the hallway from him chirped. Then Yamane laughed nervously, "Um, I wouldn't try and get her mad tonight. She's wearing her stilettos."

Edwards gulped then responded, "Understood, Lieutenant." 

Edwards cringed as he heard the high-pitched voice of their communications tech in the background shouting, "YEAH! Fear The Heel Bi…"

The transmission was cut off suddenly and thankfully.

Edwards shuddered at the memory of his last encounter with 'The HEEL', and slid into the apartment. He flipped a switch on the wall a couple of times, but, as he had suspected, no lights came on. Pulling a flashlight from inside his coat, he played the narrow beam around the room, but saw nothing. 

Wait.

He moved the flashlight back and down, were he saw a dark splotch on the floor. He reached down and touched it. His fingertips came up red. 

Blood.

Edwards immediately backed up towards the doorway, keeping his gun ready as the hand holding the flashlight reached for the radio. He didn't notice the beam falling on a feral figure crouched beside the door. 

His head jerked up as he heard a girl's scream from the apartment above him. 

It was all the distraction that was needed.

He had seen the agent enter the room and immediately knew he was a threat. So when the opportunity presented itself, he did not hesitate to think about his actions. He merely lashed out springing from the shadows and slamming his adversary's head into the wall. 

The agent groaned once and collapsed on the floor, a small form in a white shirt and black pants standing over him. The boy looked at his left hand, which was shaking, not in fear, but from excitement.

__

What is this feeling of power and drive?

I've never known…

His heart was racing, pounding in his ears, every muscle in his body trembling with exhilaration. 

__

I feel alive.

He poked the Section two agent with his toe, making sure he was out. When he did not move, he grabbed the trench coat and dragged the man down the apartment's hallway, away from the open door. Adrenaline flooded through every vessel in his body, 

Where does this feeling of power derive?

Making me know why I'm alive.

For the first time in his short existence, he knew for certain that he had a purpose, a reason to exist. He could feel it, a nameless hunger that drove him.

He dragged the section 2 agent out of the foyer, and promptly began rummaging through his clothes for anything useful. He found a wallet with the man's ID card and a little cash. He smirked as he noted the mans name. Niles Edwards. Edwards wasn't too bad, but Niles? Not very impressive.

Taking the man's trench coat, he brooded over what it was he was really looking for. It certainly wasn't the pitifully small amount of money the agent had in his wallet. 

Like the night it's a secret,

Sinister dark and unknown.

But he would not stop until he had found what it was that drove him.

I do not know what I seek, yet…

Throwing the coat behind him, he stepped outside into the darkened hallway

I'll seek it alone.

* * *

Asuka paced the floor of the apartment impatiently. It had taken Misato forever to actually wake up and realize something was wrong, even with Asuka shaking her screaming at her to wake up. Once awake though she took immediate action, contacting the Section Two agents positioned nearby. 

Before heading downstairs to coordinate the search for the third child, she instructed Asuka to lock the door and not let anyone in until she got back. 

Left with nothing to do, Asuka waited on the couch in the living room as patiently as she could.

That lasted nearly ten minutes. 

She turned on the TV, flipping through the channels almost absentmindedly. There was nothing on, nothing that caught her interest anyway. 

She had visited the kitchen, trying to find something to eat. Damn. Nothing but instant meals and beer. She closed the door and started looking through the cupboards for anything_. Sheise, still nothing good_. She tapped her foot irritably on the floor. She went back to the fridge, looking through it as thought something new might have suddenly appeared in the short time since she had last checked. 

__

Dammit, where was Shinji when you needed hi…She cut off the thought mentally slapping herself. They would find him soon enough, then she would teach him to make her worr…

No, I am NOT worried, she though. _I am merely… concerned for the well being of one of my fellow pilots. _

She shuddered at how much that last thought sounded like something Wondergirl might have said. That had led to the current bout of edgy pacing.

She passed by Shinji's room, noticing the cold breeze that blew through it. She had never closed the window. She had actually been avoiding going into the room. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. Against the wall was the broken remains of Shinji's desk lamp, lying where they had been thrown. Whoever had thrown it had done so with enough force to dent the metal lamp and leave a good size hole in the wall. She didn't know what disturbed her more, the idea that someone else had been here and done that…

…or that Shinji could have done it.

Shaking the thought from her head, she walked over to the window and started to pull it down. When she did, she noticed something on the ground below. She couldn't be sure, but it looked like a boy in a white shirt, standing underneath a streetlamp.

Asuka didn't take the time to think. She just ran to the foyer, quickly slipping on her shoes and grabbing a raincoat and umbrella. She rushed out of the apartment and to the elevator, not bothering to lock the door as she left.

She threw on the coat in the elevator, noticing she was only wearing her shorts and t-shirt, but she would only be outside for a little while, so it wouldn't matter. What the hell was Shinji doing outside in the rain? It didn't make any sense. But once she got outside, and saw the small form standing on a far off corner, all doubts were pushed out of her mind as a new thought took hold.

__

That dumkomph had better have a good excuse for making me come out here, she fumed, opening her umbrella.

She stormed up to him, but it was only when she got loser that she realized she had been mistaken about his identity. 

First of all, he wasn't dressed like Shinji. He wore a white dress shirt, but there was no blue t-shirt underneath, and she could see the skin of his chest where the top of the shirt was left unbuttoned. oversized, black trench coat hung loosely around his shoulders. His skin was pale, but unlike Ayanami his complexion was more ashen, as if he had been drained of blood. 

His face was upturned towards a streetlamp, the rainwater streaming down on his face. The water plastered his dark, slightly wavy hair to the pale skin, the tendrils reaching down past his nose, and actually touching his shoulders in back. Though not smiling, the expression on his face was one of absolute bliss.

She watched him for a few moments in morbid curiosity before speaking. "What are you doing?"

His head jerked in her direction, water droplets flying from the ends of the dark strands of hair. "Asuka?" he said in surprise as he stared at her.

Asuka flinched at the sound of her name coming from the strange boy's mouth, partly from the deep, coarse tenor of his voice, and partly from the intensity of his cold, blue eyes. "How do you know my name?"

He smiled for a moment before answering, his smirk almost seeming devilish, "Well, who in Tokyo-3 wouldn't know the Pilot of Eva Unit Two, the great Asuka Langley Sohryu?"

A surge of pride flashed through her for a moment. What he said was certainly true, though she still felt a little uneasy in the presence of this strange boy.

Though, he seemed oddly familiar… 

"I know you, don't I?" 

She really didn't recognize him. Not that she had ever really noticed him before, but he had changed, and she would have to notice him now. He laughed to himself as he thought, _After tonight, my little love, you will never forget me._

"We've never actually met before," he answered, which, of course was completely truthful. "To tell the truth, even if we had, you still don't think you would remember me."

He looked Asuka up and down. What would Shinji do right now? Apologize? Run? Hide? _Well, sorry Shinji, not this time. No place to run, No place to…_

"Well, what's your name then?"

"Hyde…" he said with a slight smile. "Edward Hyde." 

"So, what are you doing outside, in this kind of weather, this late at night?" She asked, with a slightly superior tone to her voice.

He smiled. "I happen to like the weather. The wind, the rain, the thunder. Can't you feel the energy in the air?"

Asuka realized she could feel the power in the wind, in the dark air, but she did not like it at all. It was uncomfortable. She was used to being in control, but this, there was no controlling a storm. It felt so much larger, so primal that it almost seemed malevolent. She shivered as the cold wind blew past her bare legs. 

"And what, may I ask, are you doing outside, in this kind of weather, at this time of night?" he asked, turning her own question against her. 

"I'm looking for a… a friend of mine," she stated timidly. "When I saw you out here, I thought you might be him." 

"Really?" he said, interested. "Who's your friend?"

"Shinji Ikari," she said. "he's one of my roommates." 

"Ikari… Ikari…" he said, as if searching through a file folder for the name. "Oh yes, he's friends with Suzuhara and Aida, right? Funny, I just can't see you being friends with him."

Asuka narrowed her eyes at the boy. "And why is that?" she asked, a threatening tone to her voice. 

He shrugged, using the motion to bring the trench coat higher up on his shoulders. "I don't know, he just seems to be too much of a wimp for you."

Asuka decided that she really didn't like this boy. "And what would you know?" she said mockingly, "He's probably braver than a little boy like you cold ever pretend to be."

He laughed at her verbal jab. Finding it interesting that she would be defending his more withdrawn side. Perhaps there was more to her feelings than he… Yes, he remembered now. She was the reason he had done this. And looking at how beautiful she was, he could reason why. 

"Well, since I'm not stupid enough to freeze to death out her, I'll be going now." Asuka turned to leave. 

Hyde panicked. He had to keep her here, stop her from leaving. She couldn't go just yet 

"Wait," he said.

Asuka turned.

__

I have a thirst that I cannot deprive…

Her eyes went wide at the touch of his lips pressed against her own, her body going rigid with shock. Her grip on the umbrella loosened and it fell to the ground, the wind slowly carrying it away. The boy inhaled deeply, trying to capture the sweet, berry scent emanating from Asuka, drinking in the taste of the kiss, taking in every sensation he could from the experience.

__

…Never have I felt so alive.

He pulled away and smirked at her.

The sound of Asuka's slap echoed off the concrete walls of the buildings. 

His eyes narrowed in anger. Driven by the stinging in his cheek and the humiliation he felt, he grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and returned the slap with the back of his left hand. Asuka's eyes went wide, as she cut the inside of her lip with her teeth. Shock and fear flashed across her face, before she found her anger once more. She pulled back to slap him again.

He caught her wrist in his left hand before she could land the blow. He could see the fear in her eyes as he squeezed her wrist. He pulled her closer and she tried to pull away, but he managed to hold on, pinning her arms across her chest. 

Tightening his hold on her, Hyde leaned close and whispered, almost growled, into Asuka's ear, "No one touches Edward Hyde." 

Asuka was unable to break free, his icy voice causing her to shudder in fear, his breath brushing past her skin causing goose bumps to rise up on the back of her neck. The smell of his breath lingered on her nose, and on her tongue from the abrupt kiss. A smell like LCL. 

Like blood…

Oh mein Gott… his breath smelled like blood. 

Asuka's mind raced, searching for any means of escape from this monster of a boy. She had to get away. Find any opening. Take whatever opportunity presented itself.

Still keeping her arms pinned, he brought one hand up and ran his fingers through her glistening coppery hair. 

Asuka stomped on his foot, hard, and he let go. She ground her heel into his foot one last time and ran. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. After a time, she looked back over her shoulder, expecting to have escaped.

Hyde was still behind her, a look of predatory amusement on his face, the tails of his coat flailing in the breeze.

And he was gaining on her. 

She directed her vision forward again, lengthening her stride as much as she could. She had to keep running, she couldn't stop, couldn't let him catch up to her, just keep…

She slipped where the wet sidewalk met the road. Momentum continued to carry her forward, her knee and right arm dragging against the rough asphalt as she landed. She painfully pushed herself up of the ground, her gasping breaths hissing between her clenched teeth. Her legs hurt too much to stand, but she still tried to drag herself to her feet. She turned as a bright light fell on her face, her wet skin glowing bright white against the night.

Asuka could only stare, wide-eyed as the bright headlights of the van sped towards her, the impact inevitable. There was a muted whimper of alarm and fear, and the loud squealing of wet bakes and tires as the driver tried to stop. 

She closed her eyes and prayed that it would be quick. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life a comatose vegetable in some sterile hospital room. Asuka cried out as she felt the heat of the headlamps on her face.

The black van came to a stop less than a meter in front of her, sliding sideways on the wet pavement. Hyde froze, the lights blinding him. The passenger door on the van swung open as the Section Two agent trained his gun on the second child's pursuer. 

The side door slid open, Ramirez grabbing the shaken and bleeding Asuka and pulling her into the van, as Yamane yelled at the boy to get on the ground, ready to fire on the visibly angry boy at any moment. He relaxed as Hyde started crouching down as if to comply. 

The boy lunged like a wild beast, charging the van's door. Yamane fired, his shot going high. Hyde pushed against the door, slamming all his weight into it and momentarily stunning the agent. That short time was just enough for him to escape into the darkness.

Yamane shoved the door open again, aiming his gun into the gloom of the night. There was no sign of the boy, and no indication of where he had gone. He slowly backed up and got in the van.

"Ramirez, get Major Katsuragi on the line. Tell her we've found the second child, but there is still no sign of the third and Edwards is still missing." He turned toward the driver. "Kimura, get us out of here.

A pair of cold, blue eyes watched all of this from an alleyway not far from the intersection. Hyde laughed to himself as he watched them drive away. Twice he had outwitted the ineffective agents tonight.

__

There is no battle I couldn't survive…

Feeling like this!

Feeling alive!

He ran through the shadows, back towards the apartment building. He could not understand why Asuka had rejected him. He was everything that Shinji was not, and yet she had not only rebuked his advances, but had defended his other self. Yet, it did not discourage him. In fact, quite the opposite was true.

__

Like the moon, an enigma, lost and alone in the night. 

He rode the elevator back up to the floor below Misato's apartment, stalking silently towards the open door.

Damned by some heavenly stigma, but blazing with light.

He walked past the unconscious agent, pausing for a moment, recalling the rush he had felt as he had attacked. He smirked at the blood on the back of his head, and gave the man another good kick, which caused the man to stir slightly. 

It's the feeling of being alive.

Filled with evil, but truly alive.

He tore off the coat and hid it in a nearby closet, Suddenly feeling tired. He leaned forward, clutching his head pain suddenly struck him. Pulling back his hand, he noticed a clump of dark wavy hair clutched in it. Apparently, Shinji was coming back out. But it didn't matter. He had found what he was looking for. He stumbled a few steps and collapsed.

It's a truth that can not be denied.

As he drifted off, the night's events replayed in his mind, the sensations locked into his memory.

It's the feeling of being Edward Hyde.

* * *

Edwards groaned as he woke up. His head was killing him and he felt dizzy. Rubbing the back of his skull, he winced. His hand came back covered in blood, which he was fairly certain was his own. He grabbed his mike. "Team one." 

Ow. It hurt even to talk.

"Edwards!? Where have you been?" came a high-pitched voice over the line.

"Out," he winced. "Whats going on?"

"Well, lets see. The third child has gone missing, The second was attacked, and on top of that we almost ran her over and lost her attacker." 

"Might have been the same guy that got me, I'm right underneath the Major's apartment." He picked up his dead flashlight and smacked it a couple of times. The beam came back on and blinded him for a moment.

Yamane came on the line. "Then it's a good chance the third has been abducted. I'll notify the Commander immediately."

"You can hold off on that for a moment." He said, his light shining on the unconscious form of a boy with unruly brown hair. "I've found the third child."


	7. Sympathy, Tenderness

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate the feedback and input. I will continue to include the lyrics in the story as I have. I have tried to insert the lyrics as thought they were a character's thoughts (don't all your innermost thoughts rhyme?) I apologize for those who read this because the "songfic" disclaimer got erased. 

Notes on Edward Hyde: I actually considered having Shinji read the R.L. Stevenson book, but tried to use the approach from the original musical. Shinji's alternate self chose in a moment of haste, combining the name of the agent with another word drifting through his mind when Asuka asked him for his name. It is after he gives Asuka this pseudonym that he begins to think of himself by that name and mentally separates himself from Shinji. There is more I want to say to his choice in the name and his personality, but that would be revealing things I was saving for later chapters. 

I will say this though, Hyde is not Shinji. They may share a body and some memories, but Hyde is more than just Shinji's buried desires unleashed. 

Disclaimer: I do not own _Neon Genesis Evangelion _or _Jekyll and Hyde. _

Tokyo 3, Nerv Hospital Ward.

He groaned as he awoke. Blinking to clear his eyes. Great, another unfamiliar ceiling. Shinji tried to sit up, started to feel dizzy, and fell back against the bed. What happened to him. He couldn't remember anything clearly from the night before, nothing before…

The formulae! Had it worked? He didn't feel any different. Maybe he didn't notice the changes. He had no memory of anything after drinking the luminous red liquid.

Well, no tangible memories. Shinji did remember some things, dreams, though they seemed more like nightmares. He was used to having nightmares, but nothing like this. These were dark, violent, more realistic than any dream he had ever had before. And it was not just the images that were disturbing. He could remember smells, textures, tastes. The sweet smell of strawberries. The soft texture of silken hair.

The taste of blood.

He shuddered at the thought of that taste, how disgusting it was every time he climbed into the entry plug of his Eva and it flooded with LCL, but how stimulating it had been to him in the dream.

That was probably the most disturbing part of it all. It wasn't the violence of the dreams, or their realism, it was how much he had enjoyed it. 

He shook his head to try and clear it of the flashes of images. They weren't real. He just had to keep telling himself that. It didn't mean anything. It was only a dream, after all.

"Well, I see you're finally awake." 

Shinji looked over and saw Doctor Akagi standing in the doorway, clipboard in hand. "We were a little worried when you wouldn't wake up."

Shinji blinked, confused, "What happened? Why am I in the hospital?" 

"We're still trying to figure that out," She said, writing something down. "We'll let you know as soon as we know more."

Shinji nodded, still no less confused, but not wanting to argue with the doctor.

She put the pen away and looked at him. "But, as there doesn't seem to be anything physically wrong, you can go home."

"Is Misato here?" he asked.

Sorry, something came up. She had to go in early today. Section Two will drive you back. You should be happy to know that you and Asuka don't have to go to school today. Just go home and get some rest."

He nodded, and looked around the room nervously. It took Ritsuko a moment before she remembered he was still dressed only in the hospital gown. She smirked, then left so he could change into his clothes. 

She had barely closed the door when her cell phone rang. No sooner had she placed it to her ear when she heard the Commander's voice, "What is the status of the third child?" 

She frowned, "He is curious about what happened, but doesn't seem to remember anything. I couldn't find any traces of drugs in his system, so whatever the assailant used dissipated quickly. The fact that he does not remember being abducted could mean the drug used acted extremely fast, or that Shinji blocked the incident out."

"What about the blood samples obtained by Section Two?" 

__

Leave it to the bastard to change the subject, she thought. Most fathers would be more concerned about their sons, but not the Commander. "It will take some time to obtain a DNA analysis, but I'm fairly certain that both Shinji's abductor, and pilot Sohryu's attacker are the same person." 

"What brought you to this conclusion?"

Ritsuko paused, knowing what she was about to say would destroy a colleague's career. _Sorry Henrietta, but you knew the risks when you did this_. "Because both samples contained traces of Doctor Keel's nano-machines."

There was silence on the other end of the line. 

"Commander Ikari?" 

"That is all I need for now, Doctor. Inform me when you have the DNA results. " There was a click as he hung up.

Ritsuko sighed, wondering what the Commander was going to do. Hopefully, Henrietta would be smart and cooperate, but if she didn't… She noticed the security camera across the hallway in the corner, positioned perfectly to see anyone that went in or out of Shinji's room. She glared at the device, just in case the Commander was watching on the other end.

* * *

Shinji paused at the front door of the apartment, looking at the section two agent stationed down the hall. What had happened last night? Why wouldn't anyone tell him anything?

He opened the door and stepped inside, just in time to hear the bathroom door as it was slammed open, the sound of which was quickly followed by a string of German curses. 

Asuka stormed past him on her way to the kitchen. She stopped and turned back when she saw him. 

"Well its about time you got home." she said with her hands on her hips. "I had to eat one of Misato's instant nightmares this morning because of you weren't here to make breakfast."

Asuka smiled a little bit. She was glad Shinji was back in one piece, but she was not going to let him see that. She may have been happy to see him, but she was not going to let him think it was okay for him to just vanish in the middle of the night. Of course, that all vanished when Shinji did one of the things she absolutely could not stand. 

He muttered a "sorry" under his breath, at which Asuka reared back her arm as if to smack him. She paused there as Shinji awaited the incoming blow, then she let out an exasperated sigh and turned on her heel towards the kitchen. She turned a little too carelessly though and her elbow struck the corner of the wall. 

She yelped and grabbed her arm stumbling for a second. Shinji almost went to help her, but when she managed to stay on her feet he stopped when she flashed him a quick glare. He was still concerned, though he wasn't going to risk bodily harm by touching Asuka when it wasn't welcome, so instead he asked, "What happened to your arm?" 

"This?!" She yelled, pain and anger evident in her voice. She lifted up her arm so he could see the bandage, then gesturing to the two equally large bandages on her knees. I got these because I was stupid enough to go looking for you last night. I spend last night, running around in the rain, getting chased by some lunatic, and I hear you were sleeping the whole time."

Shinji did not respond, but felt a twinge of guilt. She had gotten hurt because she had been out looking for him. Wait, didn't her and Doctor Akagi say he had been sleeping the whole time? If that were true, why would Asuka go looking for him? Wasn't he in his bed?

"And to top it all off, I can't find where Misato hid the first aid kit."

Putting the questions out of his mind he tried to remember where Misato had put the first aid kit. "I think she put it in the kitchen."

Asuka looked at him, doubtful. "Now why the hell would she put it in there?"

Shinji shrugged and went to the kitchen, "I don't know. But it does make sense. I mean, the kitchen is the most dangerous room in the house."

Asuka raised an eyebrow at that last comment, before Shinji continued, "Well, at least it is when Misato's cooking."

Asuka stood there stunned for a moment, then laughed, "There may be hope for you yet, third child.

Shinji smiled and continued to rummage through the cupboards till he found the first aid kit. Finding the silence a little disturbing, and still concerned for what had happened he started asking her questions again. "You still didn't exactly tell me how you got hurt?"

"I was running in the rain and slipped, " Asuka answered softly, felling a little remorseful for laying the guilt trip on Shinji earlier. She looked on as Shinji pulled things out of the first aid kit: bandages, medical tape, antibiotic ointment, wait, was that a Yebisu? Figures Misato would consider that to be medicine. 

"You said someone chased you," he continued.

"Some crazy kid from school. The pervert was probably stalking me." She smirked, finding an opening to tease Shinji again. "Bad enough I have to deal with one at home, but now I have another pervert following me around school."

Shinji didn't try and argue the point for once, instead going to the bathroom and getting a clean washcloth. When he came back in the room, she was still talking.

"But I won't forget his name any time soon," she said, a touch of malice evident in her voice. 

He froze as her next words left her lips, ushering up the dark images he had tried to forget. 

"Hyde," she said, disgust dripping from each syllable. "Edward Hyde."

Shinji went pale, though thankfully Asuka did not see it. She was too busy trying to remove the bandage from her arm, which was difficult to do with her left hand, and with the awkward angle from which she was working. She muttered several curses under her breath before shouting, "Sheise!"

"Here, let me help." He said.

She glared at him, "I don't need your help, Baka."

"Please," he said looking at her pleadingly, "I just want to help." 

She rolled her eyes and put her elbow on the table as Shinji sat across from her.

She winced as he peeled off the bandage on her arm, her breath hissing through her teeth.

"I'm sorry"

She glared at him for a moment, "Just be more careful, Baka."

They both looked down at her skinned forearm, which was glowing an angry red where Asuka hadn't clean it last night. Shinji cringed inwardly at the sight of the infected abrasion, an injury he felt he was responsible for, _Oh god, Asuka. I'm so sorry…_

He picked up the washcloth and walked over to the sink, running it under the hot water. As he brought it up to her arm, Asuka squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the burning pain as the hot cloth touched her skin.

There was no pain, no burning, only a gentle warmth as the washcloth was wrapped around her arm. She felt Shinji's hand take her own, and Asuka resisted the urge to jerk her arm away. Shinji lifted her arm so he could better tend to her, . She knew that the rough texture of the washcloth should have hurt, but it didn't. She didn't question why, she was happy to just sit there and enjoy the feeling of Shinji caring for her, even if it was just for a moment. 

__

Sympathy, tenderness…Warm as the summer. Offer me their embrace.

A contented sigh slipped past her lips, and Asuka's eyes snapped open, suddenly mortified that Shinji might have heard her. She looked at his face, but he was concentrating on treating her. He was working so seriously, but without the detached clinical look she had seen on the faces of doctors before. No, he was genuinely concerned for her. She could see it in his eyes, the way he looked at her, how he carefully and tenderly examined her arm.

Asuka had never really noticed how warm his eyes were. A blue that almost bordered on gray, a deep cobalt.

__

Friendliness, gentleness…Strangers to my life. They are there in his face.

Feeling her gaze on him, Shinji looked up, and his eyes met Asuka's. He froze at her intense sapphire gaze, but she quickly looked away. She let her eyes wander around the room, taking note of the strange balance of cleanliness and disorder. A spotless, shining countertop, with beer cans and instant ramen wrappers scattered about. The fridge filled to capacity with beer. The other fridge, containing the penguin, (and more beer). There were times when she hated the apartment. It was too small, and there was no privacy, and she had to live with a absolute slob and a perverted little boy, and… and…

…it was home…

Despite everything she told herself that she hated about the apartment, she couldn't remember another place were she felt more welcome. Shinji or Misato were always there if she needed them, not that she ever really needed them. She had never truly appreciated it before now. She couldn't help but smile as Pen Pen waddled out of his fridge and into the living room to watch TV. Even the stupid penguin was a part of the strange family. 

__

Goodness and sweetness and kindness abound in this place.

Shinji's voice broke her out of her trance. "Asuka?"

"Yes? What…" She looked back, and the apprehensive look on his face made her pause. "What is it?" He held out a brown plastic bottle. Hydrogen peroxide, great.

"Sorry, Asuka. I know this is going to hurt, but…"

She closed her eyes and turned her head away. "Just hurry it up, Baka." 

Shinji placed her elbow on the towel and she took a deep breath to steady herself. She was no going to cry out, not going to show him any signs that she was weak. She clenched her teeth as he slowly started to pour the stinging liquid onto the wound. _Mein Gott! _her mind screamed. It burned as it made contact, fire shooting up her arm. Her arm shook slightly with the pain as the wound bubbled and hissed. 

She froze as she felt the cooling, soothing sensation of his breathe on her arm. It felt good, a little too good for her own comfort in fact. She actually 

Shinji daubed some antibiotic ointment onto the scrape, making sure it was completely coated, then he covered it with a clean bandage. 

"There, all done." he said, looking up at her "do you want me to take care of your knees?"

Asuka blushed, but hid her own embarrassment by acting mortified by what Shinji had said, "Oh you would just love that wouldn't you? You would love to get the chance to touch my legs, wouldn't you? Well sorry to spoil your perverted little fantasy, but I can take care of the rest myself."

She gathered up the first aid kit's contents in her arms and carried them to the bathroom, leaving Shinji sitting there stunned. She deposited them into the sink and quickly closed and locked the door. 

She leaned back against the wall, banging her head several times, trying in vain to remove the disquieting thoughts. No, no, NO! She didn't like Baka-Shinji! She had already had this argument with herself. She couldn't like him! How could she care about a wimp like him? No, Asuka didn't like Shinji. 

No, It was far worse than that…

__

I am in love with the things that I see in his face.

No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't rid her thoughts of him. They kept returning to his eyes, his gentle face, his hand holding hers. For a moment she wondered, what would it be like to kiss him again? She smiled to herself as she reminisced on the concerned warmth of his eyes.

__

It's a memory I know time will never erase.

* * *

Shinji just stood there, not wanting to believe what Asuka had just said. It wasn't the 'pervert' comment. After what he had said, he could understand how she could take it the wrong way. But, what she had said about last night, the events, that name, it all came rushing back in a flood. 

__

No, it couldn't be true, he thought. _I could never do anything like that. Besides, why would he give himself a foreign name? It just didn't make sense. _But everything else pointed to the opposite as being true. If only there was some way to be sure…

A flash of memory again hitting his mind, he ran to his room. There was no mess of papers on the floor, but his desk lamp and the picture frame from his desk. He looked down and saw the hole in the wall. He looked around, but could not find the plastic vial. Panicking, he dug through the trash and desk, finally finding the vial were it had rolled and fallen behind the desk.

Shaking slightly, he opened his school bag, pulling out the simple notebook. Opening it, he saw the few notes on the opening page, and seeing where it abruptly cut off. 

He turned the page, and there, written in slanting, haphazard handwriting was one line.

MIDNIGHT, AND ALL IS WELL…

* * *

Henrietta Keel waited as patiently as she could in her apartment. The doctor could only wait until either Shinji called her, or he came in for his next appointment. She could not really call him unexpectedly without raising some unwanted questions. Instead, she read over third child's profile again, making certain she knew everything she would need for her next meeting with young Ikari. 

There was a knock at the door. She put down the folder and went to the door, checking through the peephole before unlocking it. 

"Yes?" she said, greeting the two black-suited agents.

"Doctor Keel?" one said. She nodded and the agent continued, "Commander Ikari wants to see you."

Keel narrowed her eyes at the mention of the Commander, "What does the Commander want?"

"Sorry, but we're not at liberty to say," he said, gesturing for the doctor to step outside. She started to follow, but when the agent started to grab her arm, she pulled away. The other agent grabbed her and she panicked. Reaching inside his jacket, she pulled the man's gun and shoved him away, she started to run down the hallway.

Three shots rang out.

* * *

Shinji finally managed to get out of the apartment building. He had ditched section-two before, and they were looking for people trying to get in, so it was not really a problem to sneak out. He caught a train across the city. Thankfully he remembered the directions Doctor Keel had given him to her apartment, just in case there was an emergency. _Well, this definitely counts as an emergency_, he thought. 

He was out the door of the train before it had even finished opening and running out of the station towards the apartment. It was only another block away. Just around the corner…

He stopped at the sight of flashing red and blue lights, and waited behind the corner. A familiar voice came from just around the wall, causing Shinji's heart to stop.

"What went wrong?" Gendo inquired. 

What was his father doing here? And what had happened? Shinji strained to hear the rest of the conversation.

"We don't know." an unfamiliar voice answered, "She was cooperative at first, then she snapped and attacked us. She got hold of Ogata's gun, and I opened fire."

"Did you find anything in the apartment?" Gendo continued coldly.

"We found files containing information on all three pilots, and diagrams for some kind of robot."

The Commander continued his inquiry, "Was there anything that points to the identity of Doctor Keel's accomplice?

"No Sir."

"Continue the investigation. I want the attacker found and removed." 

Shinji listened as the footsteps of both the agent and his father receded. He looked around the corner and saw several black-suited Section Two agents moving in and out of the second story apartment, removing files and a computer. He fought back the urge to vomit as a gurney, the form on it covered with a blood soaked sheet, was loaded into a waiting ambulance that slowly drove away. 


	8. Rei meets Hyde

Author's Notes: Sorry this got out so late. But this last week has been hectic with all the midterms and projects teachers have been clamoring for. On a side note, I popped my knee last Friday doing stupid stuff (If anyone asks how, tell them I jumped in front of a truck to save some wittle fwuffy duckies). And yes, Misty-chan, I have been keeping ice on it, and it seems to be working quite well, thank you. I have an ice pack on it right now, in fact. 

For those of you who may be wondering, Vegeta's Lil' Princess has already hit me over the head for posting so late (she couldn't find a mallet, so she used a bottle of Diet Pepsi). 

The chapter title is taken from a song titled "Lucy meets Hyde" but the lyrics are actually an excerpt from "Dangerous Game". A variation of the full song does appear in some versions of the musical shortly after the character Lucy meets Mr. Hyde. (note: there are a lot of versions of this musical.) I would recommend seeing it on stage if you can. There are sites that list most of the showings of Jekyll and Hyde in production, including local companies. Failing that, I would recommend listening one of the CD's available. As a last resort, there is a recording of the Broadway Production with most of the original cast, though the two title characters are played by *shudder* David Hasselhoff, who needed oxygen tanks backstage (no joke, he actually passed out onstage after one song). 

But as for the story, this chapter proved quite difficult to plan as it was a late addition to the storyline (on my computer it is actually listed as chapter 7.5). I had planned on including Rei in chapter 6 and 7, but I found the chapters were already getting too long. I am an Asuka/Shinji fan, but I like Rei as well. I just find there are few Rei/Shinji fics out there that I like. But just to reassure everyone, this will not be a Rei/Kensuke fic. 

Special Note: to see a picture of the author scheming for his story's scenario, just go to the homepage link in my profile. Its right at the top of the page.

And for a short series of movie clips showing my pre-readers singing karaoke and playing DDR, just go to http:// www…*gets a crate of Pepsi dropped on him* ouchies… 

(Super-Special Note: This is the fifth time I have posted this chapter in one day, as I keep finding pieces missing. I blame it all on my computer, AOL, and four-in-the-morning writing sessions)

Disclaimer: I do not own _Neon Genesis Evangelion _or _Jekyll and Hyde._

Two days before the scheduled testing of Eva Unit 03.

Shinji leaned forward on his desk, giving himself the appearance of sleeping to anyone that saw him from behind. If it were not for the fact that his eyes were wide open, glued out the window, the illusion might have been complete. But as much as Shinji wished he could, his mind was too wracked by disturbing thoughts to sleep through he old teacher's lecture. It had been four days since he had ingested the formula, and three days since Doctor Keel's murder. There had been no word out of Nerv about the Doctor's recent demise, though someone had already called to cancel the appointment he had with her at the end of the week.

__

She's dead because of me… He could not get that out of his head. He had insisted on using her treatment, hell, he practically begged her to do it. And now she was dead because he had been too weak to control himself after taking the formula. He knew the doctor was an adult and that she knew what she was doing, but he couldn't help but feel responsible.

Then there was Asuka. He could not bring himself to look at her, not after what he had done. She had been somewhat withdrawn over the past few days, staying in her room most of the time. When the did run into one another, both avoided looking the other in the eye. 

He continued staring out the window, totally oblivious to the rest of the classroom. Ignorant of the unusual, active conversation between a certain class rep and military otaku, the empty seat of the classroom's resident jock, and the uncertain gaze of a pair of sapphire-blue eyes falling on the back of his head.

If there was one bright side to it all, the had been no more incidents since the first night. Maybe it had been only a one-time occurrence, something he could just keep hidden and forget about. He could only hope that it was all over. 

The teacher continued to drone on, seemingly content to listen to the sound of his own voice for hours on end, not caring that most of the class had found other ways of passing the time. 

He shifted his gaze, glancing at the other student staring out the window. Rei Ayanami.

In some way he was both intrigued and a little frightened by the quiet girl with the sky-blue hair. She was a mystery to everyone around her, never talking to anyone, always eating lunch alone…

Well, that wasn't entirely true. The was that one lunch two weeks ago, but Shinji was fairly certain that it had been a unique occurrence. Of course, it had happened on the one day when Asuka was trying to bring him lunch. 

Shinji looked away from her, trying to bury the feelings of anguish and anger he felt when he thought about that day. He couldn't be angry with Ayanami. There was no way she could have known what was going to happen that day. It was his fault for not acting quickly enough, for trying to take the easy way out. 

__

But why did she want to talk to me right then?! Shinji clenched his fist in frustration. He still didn't understand what it was that Ayanami had been trying to ask him. It had something to do with the time when Asuka had told Ayanami they should be friends, back when they had first met. It was hard to think that Asuka would have ever said such a thing, considering the animosity she held for the first child now. Maybe it was because Rei had rejected Asuka's offer. 

The strange thing was that Ayanami seemed genuinely perplexed by the whole incident, even if it had been months before. She kept asking him questions, strange ones like 'What is friendship?' What kind of question was that anyways? He had told her then that it was not something he could just explain. She had seemed disappointed, but had thanked him, apologized for taking up his time and left him to his lunch. 

He hadn't thought much of what she had said, his mind was too occupied with other things at the time. 

But now, he wondered why she would ask him those questions. Friendship wasn't something that was easy to explain, but that was because it shouldn't have to be explained. He knew Ayanami spent most of her time by herself, but did that mean she didn't have any friends?

Had she ever had friends?

He looked at her again. He didn't feel angry. He was still sad over the whole incident, but not only because of the wedge it had driven between him and Asuka. He was saddened that he had not been able to see it sooner. Rei wasn't alone because she preferred solitude. 

She was alone because she didn't know anything else.

* * *

Rei stared out of the classroom window, ignoring the teacher's lecture. She did not need to listen. She already knew the material, and her grades were exemplary. For some reason, she found it… soothing. 

She had always felt ill at ease in large groups, something she had been forced to deal with since she had started attending public school. She had found it unsettling, the way they stared at her, but there was something more painful than being a oddity to be gawked at. 

It was being ignored. 

Not ignored in the way the students ignored the droning of the teacher, but ignored to the point where the subject no longer was treated as a human being. The still stared at her, but always looking away if she returned their gaze, avoiding her if they could. It reminded her of something she had heard from others' stories.

A ghost. Forced to walk the world, but forever apart from it.

It was a troubling. Rei knew that it shouldn't matter if she did not have friends. It was not her purpose. In fact it was better that she held no attachments to existence, nothing to hold her to this world. It would be easier for her to carry out her duty if she had no friends.

Then what was this feeling? This emptiness… 

Was this loneliness?

Why am I alone?

She had never had a friend before, and though she had rejected the second child's offer, it had started a cycle of questions in her own mind that she could not understand. Did she want friends? What would it be like to be friends with the second child, or with the third? Was it even possible for her to be friends with someone? 

She put it out of her mind. It was not important. Friends were not necessary in her life.

A bird flew past the window, landing on a tree branch easily visible from her desk. She stared at it for the longest time as it perched on a branch alone. 

Her notebook chimed as a message popped up on the screen. She was about to close the screen when she saw who the sender was and her eyes widened imperceptibly. 

__

Pilot Ikari wishes to speak to me? She thought. Rei sat there for a few moments before responding. 

"Yes pilot Ikari?" She typed back.

"I just wanted to say I was sorry for the other day, when we talked."

She was confused. Had Ikari done something wrong? She could not think of anything he had said that could have been thought of as inappropriate. She typed, "There is nothing for you to apologize for. You did not do anything improper."

"But I should have done something else," he typed. "I don't feel like I said enough."

Rei just sat there, staring at the screen stunned, but seeming perfectly calm on the surface.

Shinji sent another message, "What I really want to say is, if any time you need a friend, I'm here." 

"Thank you, Ikari," she typed back, feeling a slight warmth in her cheeks. Rei was unable to quantify the emotion she was feeling. She did not look back. For some reason she could not understand, she did not want Ikari to see her reaction to his offer of friendship. 

He did not type any more, and Rei went back to staring out the window. She noticed as the lone bird that had perched outside was joined by another. As the two slowly edged closer, until they were touching, the corners of her mouth twitched up into a barely noticeable smile

* * *

Shinji smiled to himself as Rei went back to staring out the window. He caught a glimpse of a ghost of her reflection in the window, and thought he saw her smiling, but could not be certain. _Well, at least I tried for once_, he thought. 

The rest of the class sped by with relative quickness, though it was not fast enough for some. Kensuke wanted to talk to Hikari about Touji's recent absences from school, and the strange way he had been acting the last couple of days. Unfortunately for him, Asuka too had plans for Hikari and was already talking rapidly to the pigtailed class rep. 

"Excuse me, Kaiser. I need to talk to the class rep about something." Hikari started to speak when he said this, but Asuka beat her to the punch.

"Sorry nerd, but I already asked Hikari to go shopping with me today, so you're out of luck." She smiled triumphantly, "And besides, what would you have to talk to her about?" 

"Not that its any of your business, but its about Touji."

"Oooh!" Asuka cooed teasingly. "What happened? Did the jock send you here with a secret message for Hikari? Is he too scared to deliver it himself? Come on, tell us what loverboy had to say."

Hikari's face got redder and redder with each teasing remark out of her friend's lips, finally she slapped her hand over Asuka's mouth, laughing nervously. "Sorry Kensuke, I completely forgot about going shopping with Asuka. If you want you can come to the mall with us and we can talk about it there."

Kensuke and Asuka gaped at Hikari, their eyes wide in shock, more shocked than had she announced the school's name was being changed to 'Saint Gendo Junior High'. Asuka said something that began, "What the… " Well, attempted to say, as Hikari's hand was still clamped over her face.

Kensuke, mortified alone at the thought of going to the mall with two girls, let alone when one of them was almost certainly the devil incarnate, began backing away from the two. "Its okay, its not that important. I'll talk to you about it tomorrow, okay Hikari?"

She nodded, and no sooner had she finished the motion, Kensuke rushed out of the class the hounds of hell nipping at his heels. She blinked a couple of times, taking a moment to actually register the sensation of teeth trying to gain purchase on the skin of her palm. She pulled her hand away from the irritated redhead just in time to keep from being bitten.

Asuka glanced over to where Shinji was busy packing up his things and shouted to get his attention, "Hey, Baka! I'm going to the mall with Hikari. Tell Misato that I'll be back later."

"Okay Asuka?" he said. The two started leave. 

"Hey, Asuka?"

Asuka and Hikari both stopped, sticking their heads around the doorframe. "What, Baka?" Asuka asked.

"Just… you two be careful, okay?"

Asuka flashed a self-confident smirk, "What, you think we can't handle ourselves? Do you want to go with us and hold our hands so we don't get lost?"

"N...no. I just…" 

Asuka sighed. "I swear, third child, you seriously need a humor transplant."

Shinji hung his head and let out a long breath after she had gone. Well at least he hadn't stammered out an apology, that was something.

His stomach grumbled as he picked up his school bag. For some reason he had felt hungrier lately, and what he normally ate for lunch no longer stuck with him as long as it used to. If this kept up, he might soon rival Touji's appetite. 

He saw Ayanami waiting at the corner for the signal to change when he got outside. He briefly wondered if she might be hungry. Maybe she would like to go and get something to… 

But before he could even get the thought through his mind, his typical nature kicked in and he started walking the other direction. He had made it a little more than a block away when a sudden wave of nausea washed over him. He leaned against a wall to regain his balance, scratching his itching scalp. The nausea passed and he stood up, only to be struck by a massive bolt of pain in his temples. 

He grabbed his head, rubbing his temples as he tried to will the pain away. His hands were shaking. He pulled them away from his head as his left hand started clenching and unclenching rapidly. He grabbed his left hand with his right, trying to stop the motion, but it would not be stopped. He could only scream in agony as the darkness claimed him.

* * *

Rei walked towards her own drab apartment at a steady rate, her mind once again on the topic that seemed to plague her. Why was she alone? Was it because of who she was? Was her appearance that disturbing?

Was she truly alone? 

Rei slowed her pace. Something was out of place, a feeling of… wrongness. She stopped, turning to look behind her. Her crimson eyes scanned the typically empty street, finding nothing out of the ordinary. 

She turned back and continued on her way, but the feeling did not leave her. Her heart rose, and her skin began to perspire. She started paying more attention to the noises around her, her own footsteps echoing off the walls of the buildings, and hidden in that echo the faint sound of another pair of footsteps. She glanced behind herself again, the shadowing footfalls halting as she did so.

Again, she saw nothing behind her and paused to be certain. 

Nothing.

She continued walking, quickening her pace as she did so. She could hear the footsteps again, hear as they quickened their own pace to keep time with hers. She turned around a corner, taking a slight detour from her normal route between he apartment and the school. Walking beside a building with dark-tinted glass windows, she looked in the reflection to see what was behind her.

An empty street and her own slightly distorted reflection staring back at her were all she saw in the window. She continued walking, but still kept her gaze locked on the reflection. Her footsteps and heartbeat echoed in her ears, but she still could see nothing.

Yet the feeling of being pursued would not go away.

She continued her fast paced walk until she reached the next corner. At that point Rei immediately broke into a sprint, her face betraying no hint of fear, but her heart pounding loudly beneath her chest. She continued to run until she reached her apartment, she was breathing hard and sweating as she opened the door and closed it behind her, and, with a little uncertainty, locked it. 

She sat on her bed as her heartbeat slowly wound its way down, thinking of what to do next. She thought against calling section two, as she had no proof that there was definite any threat, but she still felt a need to call someone.

__

'If any time, you need a friend…'

She hesitated. She did not wish to call Ikari without reason, and she did not know the number for his cell phone. She did, however, know the number for Major Katsuragi's apartment. 

She took a breath, and dialed. 

* * *

She could hear the phone ringing from outside as she opened the door. "Dammit! Hold on! hold on!" she shouted at the device until she answered it. "Katsuragi here." 

She was surprised to hear Rei Ayanami's voice on the phone. "Hello Major. May I speak to pilot Ikari?" 

"Um, I'm sorry Rei, but I don't think Shinji or Asuka are here at the moment," the purple-haired Major replied. "Do you want to leave a message?" 

There was a pause. "That will not be necessary, Major Katsuragi."

For a moment, Misato wondered if she wasn't talking to someone else. Rei's voice sounded shaky, uncertain, so unlike the emotionally reserved girl she was accustomed to.

Rei continued, "I'm sorry if I disturbed you, Major." 

"Rei, wait." Misato interrupted. "Are you alright?"

"I am uninjured."

Misato smiled at the very literal answer from the girl, "What I meant to ask is…" she paused, trying to find the right words, "Is there something that is upsetting you?"

"I…I am not sure." Misato could hear the stress evident in the young pilot's voice and grew very concerned. This was not like Rei. 

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Rei described her walk home and the sense of being pursued, and Misato grew even more worried, even though Rei admitted she saw no actual evidence she was being followed .

"Rei, don't worry. I'm sure it was nothing, but just stay there. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"T...thank you Major."

"Your welcome Rei," Misato said, smiling. "I'll see you in a few minutes. Goodbye." 

She heard as Rei hung up on the other end. From anyone else, it might have appeared rude to hang up without saying goodbye, but this was Rei. Feeling a beak pecking at her leg, she looked down. Pen Pen pecked her once more and stared up at her, giving her a hungry, "Wark." 

"I'm sorry, Pen Pen but I don't have time to feed you right now?

"Wark!" the hot springs penguin expressed indignantly, pecking her legagain.

"Ow!" Misato yelped, grabbing her shin. "Look, I'll make it up to you when I get back okay. How does salmon takeout sound?" 

Pen Pen looked at her skeptically. 

"Fine!" Misato said exasperated. "I'll get you the shrimp special as well. Does that sound acceptable?"

The penguin seemed to find this acceptable and nodded his agreement with a happy "Wark."

* * *

Rei sat on her bed, waiting. It had been a few minutes since she had hung up the phone. She was unsure of how long it would take Major Katsuragi to arrive, but she had overhead Pilot's Sohryu and Ikari discussing her driving habits before, and though she thought their claims were slightly farfetched, she expected the Major would arrive a few minutes from now. 

There was a knock on her door, and Rei stood and walked over to open it. She was a little amazed that the Major had already arrived. Perhaps Ikari and Sohryu were not exaggerating.

But her visitor was not who she expected.

He stood there smiling at her. Rei stared back, unsure of what to do, anxious . It was the boy who finally broke the silence, "May I come in?"

"No." Rei began to close the door, but he stopped it with his foot.

"Just one question." He said, his gaze determined.

Rei stood there, continuing to lean her small weight against the door. She knew she should not even give him the chance, but if allowing him to ask his question would get him to leave sooner, then it was worth it. She opened the door slightly, allowing him to remove his foot. She remained ready to slam the door shut at the first sign of hostility.

"One question," she stated flatly, "then you will leave."

"Why are you alone?"

Rei's mind flinched at that question, one of the many that had been rolling around in her mind that day. Felling very uncomfortable in the boy's presence she tried to close the door again, but he kept it open with his left hand. He did not try to force his way inside, but kept door open just enough that he could continue to speak to Rei face-to-face. 

"You asked your question," she said. "Now, leave."

"I'm not going to go yet for two reasons," he said. "One, you never answered my question, and two," he smiled cunningly, "you didn't say 'please'." 

"You are making me uncomfortable," she said. "Please, leave." 

He frowned. "Very well. I only wished to speak to you, but if that is what you want, then I'll go."

She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, as he turned to leave. He looked back and gave her one parting remark. "If you truly wish to be alone, then I'll leave." 

He slowly started to walk away, Rei standing in the doorway of her apartment as she watched. He could only wonder if he had said enough for her to take the next step.

"Wait," came the soft voice from behind him. He smirked to himself victoriously before composing himself and turning back towards Rei. 

"You wanted to talk," she stated.

"Yes," he replied. "Do you want to talk out in the open, or inside where we can sit down?"

She paused, debating whether or not to just shut the door and be done with it.

"Please," he said softly, "may I come in?" 

He didn't tell her to let him in, or command her to do it. He was giving her a choice. Though she still felt uneasy she stepped aside and held the door open for him. He waited for her to shut the door behind him before walking over to sit on the edge of the bed, already knowing that there were no chairs to sit on in the small apartment. He looked around the room noting the garbage and filth on the floor and countertops. 

He smiled, "Nice room. Quite appropriate."

Rei was puzzled. When Ikari had been in her apartment, he seemed put off by its appearance. And what could he mean by "appropriate"? 

He anticipated her question and explained, "I mean, it just seems fitting to find such beautiful flower growing in the trash."

Rei found her face growing hot for the second time that day. She looked away to hide her embarrassment.

He laughed lightly, and when she looked back he motioned for her to sit beside him. Rei eventually did, though she kept a distance between the two of them. 

"You still haven't answered my question," he stated. "Why are you alone?"

"I don't know." 

He placed his hand on the bed, so that his fingers brushed against hers. She pulled her hand away placing it on her lap. She did not understand why she had let him in. She didn't even know his name, and yet he was in her apartment, sitting on her bed next to her. She did not feel at ease at the moment. 

Yet, she did not want to be alone…

"You don't have to be alone…" he whispered. He reached out and took her hand, motioning her to move closer. He wrapped his other arm around her, holding her close to him. She looked over to where his ashen hand rested.

__

I feel your fingers, cold on my shoulder…

He ran his fingers down to the middle of her spine, pausing where he material of her uniform passed over a thin strap of elastic and cloth that ran horizontally across her back. She shuddered at the contact. 

__

Your chilling touch as it runs down my spine…

He ran his hand softly back up her back, running his thumb along her jaw line. Lifting her chin so that her ruby eyes locked with his. He stared at her, his gaze, those icy, blue eyes gazing into hers. 

__

Watching your eyes as they invade my soul…

She was being drawn in by them. She was afraid, and yet she was slowly moving closer. She wanted to pull away, and yet she couldn't will herself to do it. How was it possible to feel two things at once? He drew his own lips closer to hers, as Rei's mind tried to resist the strong pull of the emotions coursing through her.

__

Fighting feelings I cannot define.

She pushed him away as their lips made contact, standing up and backing away from him. He stood and glared at her, his eyes becoming harder and colder in an instant.

There was aloud knock on the Door causing the boy to jerk his head and stare wild-eyed at the noise. 

"Rei? Rei, its Misato. Are you there?" She knocked on the door again. Rei rushed towards the door, but the boy grabbed her by the throat and pressed her against the wall. 

"You betrayed me," he growled. His grip grew tighter. 

"No one betrays Edward Hyde…" he whispered as Rei gurgled for breath beneath his hands, her vision filling with dark splotches, images flashing past in her mind. Strange images of a woman in a lab coat, her hands outstretched towards her as if to grasp at something… 

"Rei? Rei, I'm coming in!" Misato shouted outside. 

Hyde suddenly released his hold on Rei and she began coughing and gasping for air. Misato swung the door open just in time to witness the form of a teenage boy as he dove through the window. She pulled her sidearm, but, by the time she reached the window, he was gone. She holstered the gun and kneeled down to check on Rei

"Are you alright?" She asked, her tone concerned but exhibiting a deadly seriousness. Rei was still gasping, but managed to nod an affirmative to Misato's question.

"We need to get you out of here. Do you think you can walk?" 

Rei tried to stand, but it was obvious she couldn't. The Major scooped her into her arms and carried her to blue Alpine Renault waiting outside. She put Rei into the passenger seat, making sure the girl was securely buckled in before running to the driver's side. 

The tires squealed as she tore onto the main streets, racing towards Nerv. She pulled put her cell phone, dialing with one hand as she wove through traffic.

"Akagi," the voice on the other end answered.

"Ritsuko. I'm on my way in to Nerv with Rei."

"What?! What happened?" 

"I'm not entirely sure. It looks like someone tried to strangle her." Misato said, looking at the marks visible on the girl's neck.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. 

"Ritsuko, did you hear me? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. I'll have a medical team standing by." 

"Right. See you in a few." She hung up the phone, glancing at the blue haired girl sitting next to her. "Its going to be okay, Rei." 

Rei looked at her, her expression was composed, but her breathing was still ragged, and her eyes. Misato could actually see fear in Rei's eyes. Misato reached over and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Putting her attention back on the road, she made a mental note to deal with whoever was in charge of the first child's security detail personally.


	9. Obsession

Author's Notes: Sorry for another late chapter, but my schedule has been fairly hectic lately and I have been dividing my attention between multiple projects. I am unsure if I will be able to post next week, as I have both schoolwork and an appointment to get my wisdom teeth removed (but on the bright side, the painkillers should help me with the comedy I am writing at the moment.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Neon Genesis Evangelion _or _Jekyll and Hyde. _

"Rei?" 

The blue haired girl sat on the examination bed, her hands folded loosely in her lap. Her head hung forward limply, her chin resting on her chest. She gave no sign of having heard Doctor Akagi, or having noticed her at all. She shivered lightly, staring blankly at the floor. 

"Rei?" the doctor asked again. "How are you feeling?" 

"I am cold," The girl answered, barely above a whisper.

The doctor smiled wryly. "Yes, these rooms are never warm enough. How is your neck feeling."

"It is tolerable." Rei stated.

"But it still hurts?"

"Yes"

Ritsuko set her clipboard down on the table next to the examination bed, and stepped in front of Rei. She started to move some of the pale girl's blue hair aside, and Rei flinched suddenly. The Doctor jerked her hand away.

Rei's eyes looked at her, first with fear, then embarrassment. "I am sorry Doctor."

"Its alright, Rei," she placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "There's nothing to be sorry for. But can I look at your neck?"

Rei gave a small nod, then turned her head to one side and lifted her hair to one side. Ritsuko grimaced at the four purple blemishes on the side of the first child's neck, with a matching set on the other side of the girl's throat. _Good God… _she thought. Even though she did not personally care for the first child, with the painful memories the girl's presence caused her to recall, she would never wish this upon the girl. _What kind of monster would do this to her? _

Actually, she could think of one such monster, one she had a meeting with in less than a half hour. But even the Commander wouldn't do something like this. No, the commander was far more likely to shoot someone or have them eliminated by someone else. The Commander was a cold-hearted bastard. He did not have enough passion left in him to try and strangle someone with his bare hands. 

Doctor Akagi looked back at Rei's face, and noticed the girl was staring at her, her crimson eyes burrowing into her with a confused sadness. 

Ritsuko looked away and grabbed her clipboard, jotting down a few notes. "I'll get you some Ibuprofen to help with the pain." 

She walked over to one of the small cabinets, pulling out a chemical cold-pack. She snapped the pack and wrapped it in a cloth. She gave it to the first child who pressed it against the bruises. 

"Just try and keep cold on it for the first forty-eight hours. Other than that, you should be fine."

"Yes, Doctor," Rei said as she stood to leave.

Rei paused at the door, "Doctor Akagi?"

Ritsuko looked up from her notes, "Yes, Rei?"

"Thank you."

Ritsuko rubbed her temples. A thank you from Rei, that was a first for her, and quite possibly the strangest thing to happen to her lately. She actually felt a little disturbed by the whole incident. She brushed aside the feeling, happy things couldn't get any stranger.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, she stood in front of Commander Ikari's intimidating desk. Well, at least she wasn't alone this time. Currently, Misato was answering the Commander's questions. 

"…when I went inside I observed a figure retreating through the kitchen window. I was unable to pursue and brought Pilot Ayanami in for medical treatment," she said, concluding her account of the events. 

"Where was Section Two during all of this?" The Commander inquired.

"I spoke to the agents guarding the first child. They admitted that they had gone on a break shortly after the third child arrived at her apartment." She added darkly, "If they ever do something that stupid again I swear… 

The Commander steepled his hands as he interrupted her, "That won't be necessary, Major. The agent's responsible are being dealt with as we speak. I am concerned that something like this happened. Doctor, what is the status of the first child?"

"Physically, she should be fine, but I am still concerned. She showed poor judgment in allowing her attacker into her apartment, and from what I can observe, the incident has caused or awakened some psychological trauma."

"Is she fit to pilot?"

"Yes, but I do not think it would be wise to leave her alone for the time being, " Akagi answered.

"I understand your concerns, Doctor, and I have to agree," the Commander said, pushing a manila folder across his desk towards her, which she picked up. 

The Commander continued, "which is why, as of this moment, custody of Pilot Ayanami is being transferred to you."

Misato coughed while Ritsuko started to stammer out an objection. "With all due respect, sir, I am not equipped to care for a child."

"It should not prove too difficult. Major Katsuragi seems to have managed with her two charges."

Ritsuko opened her mouth to object, but the Commander continued to speak.

"I chose you, doctor, because you are already well aware of the first child's, dietary and medical needs. The arrangement should only be temporary, at least until the attacker is found, but if you feel you are not up to the task, I will arrange for another guardian."

Ritsuko was very tempted to ask for another guardian, but her own pride stopped her. "No sir, that will not be necessary." 

"Then, if there is nothing else either of you wish to add, I want you to concentrate your attention on the scheduled activation test." The Commander nodded at both women. "Dismissed."

Once they were outside the office, Misato turned to Ritsuko. "That room always gives me the creeps."

Noticing the Doctor seemed to have other things on her mind, Misato added, "Hey Ritsuko, if you need any help with Rei, you can always call me."

"Thanks, but I don't think Rei will be much trouble."

Misato nodded, as they walked towards the elevator.

"Hey, Ritsuko?" Misato said, stifling a giggle.

"Yes?" the doctor said as the doors opened and the stepped inside.

"Congratulations, it's a girl." Misato said as she burst out in laughter.

"Oh, shut up." 

* * *

"Asuka?" Misato yelled from her bedroom where she hastily threw on her uniform. "Asuka?"

"Yeah? What do you want?" came the annoyed answer from the kitchen.

"Where's Shinji?" Misato asked as she stumbled into the kitchen, still trying to pull her jacket on, and with one shoe halfway on.

Asuka snorted. "The Baka's still in his room. He left breakfast on the table, but I haven't seen him all morning."

"Again? That's the third time this week. I'm starting to get worried." 

Asuka did not make any snide remarks, any sarcastic comments, she just nodded silently as she placed her dishes in the sink. 

"Look I'm going to be at the Matsushiro facility all day, so you two are going to be on your own this evening." She gave Asuka some cash. "Here, take this and buy dinner for both of you, maybe go out and see a movie or something."

"Are you telling me to take that pervert out on a date?" Asuka asked resentfully.

"NO!" Misato protested. As much as she wished the two of them would get along better. Having both in a relationship would create more problems than she needed at the moment. "No, I just thought you two could use a break from sitting around here all day."

"Oh... Well, good." Asuka said. The last thing she needed was Misato ordering her to go on a date with the Baka. Though it wouldn't be good to disobey her commanding officer…

"Look, I'll be back around nine tonight. Just try and take it easy. All of you have had a rough week."

"What do you mean ALL of us?" 

__

Crap, forgot they don't know about Rei, Misato thought, mentally smacking herself upside the head. "Nothing, I just… Oh, Shit! I'm late! Sorry Asuka, gotta run!"

Misato dashed through and out of the kitchen, nearly colliding with Pen Pen as he waddled out of his fridge. The penguin "warked" indignantly as he fell over backwards. 

Asuka walked over and stood next to the penguin as he righted himself, trying to understand the workings of her guardian's mind, and giving herself a headache in the process. 

Pen Pen shook his head then stared at the open door. "Waaaark."

"You can say that again," Asuka said. "That woman is nuts."

"Wark."

Asuka looked down and saw who she was talking to. She started rubbing her temples as the headache suddenly got worse. "Mein Gott… I'm turning into one of THEM!"

She stormed back to her room to grab her school bag, leaving a very confused and slightly hungry penguin standing alone in the kitchen.

* * *

Shinji sat at his desk, writing in the journal Doctor Keel had given to him, something that had become a habit lately. He did not know what compelled him to do so, but perhaps it would help him to understand what was taking place within him.

__

-Last night was a blur. I remember running. Running harder than I ever had before. I think I may have gone to Rei's apartment, but I can't be sure. One thing I am sure of, I didn't find her. I still can't believe what I did to her, or what I could have done to her.

I haven't seen her since I escaped through the window. I can only hope that she will be all right. When Misato came home, she was quiet. I briefly considered telling her the truth, but I couldn't. I don't know why.

No. That is a lie. I know exactly why I couldn't do it. I didn't want her to look at ME with those eyes. The fear, the disgust, I couldn't bear to see that look in her eyes. The same look in Asuka's eyes, and in Rei's, when they looked at Hyde. 

I am afraid of what I might do. Thankfully, Asuka keeps her room locked at night, and Misato has her gun with her. 

I don't know what I will do if things start to go too far. I don't know if I can be strong enough to do what needs to be done. When I am Hyde, I feel stronger, faster, every sense feels heightened. 

I despise what he does, what he is, and what he represents…

…And yet, so wonderful is his love of life…

Shinji set down the pen, running a hand through his hair, which he hadn't combed today, it just didn't seem like something that really mattered all that much. Nothing really seemed to matter, not when you felt like you were going insane. 

What steak of madness lies inside of me?

He really did feel like he was going insane, not just when he was Hyde, but when he was awake. He tried to find the answers, but there were some questions he was too afraid to ask himself.

What is the truth my fears conceal?

He did not even know what caused the transformations. At first he thought it had been the drug, but now he had no clue, maybe some emotion, or stress. The only thing he knew, was that when he was Hyde he felt dark inside, the emptiness he usually felt filled with something primal…

What evil force makes Edward Hyde of me?

What darker side of me does he reveal?

There was a knock at the door. "Baka! Are you ready for school yet?"

He closed the journal, placing it between the wall and his desk before answering, "Yes, Asuka. I'll be out in just a second." 

When they arrived at the school, Rei was not present, which had worried Shinji. In addition, Touji was once again absent. He had been present the day before, which had had an obvious calming effect on the Class Representative, though Shinji was too concerned with Ayanami's absence to notice. 

The class was interrupted shortly after lunch by the ringing of two cell phones, quickly followed by the calm-shattering noise of the angel alarms. 

* * *

Shinji sat in the entry plug, waiting for the Angel to get within range, though his mind was not entirely on the mission at hand. With Misato missing, the Commander had taken control of the operation. They had no clue as to the nature of the Angel. They could only wait for the Angel to come to them, giving Shinji ample time to reflect on his situation.

__

Am I the person I appear to be,

Or am I someone I don't know?

He hefted the pallet rifle, glancing at the communications windows. He had been relieved to see Rei was alright, though she had not said anything. Shinji suppressed a shudder, as a feeling of dread passed through him. The angel was approaching from the same direction as the Matsushiro facility. He tried to shake off the feeling, like something instinctual was trying to warn him. 

I fear some monster drawing near to me,

"Target should be entering visual range now," one of the techs announced.

Becoming clear to see…

"It can't be…" he heard Asuka whisper.

Will what I fear to be…

Be so?

"The Angel… is an Eva?" Asuka's voice came across the channel, the tone resting somewhere between disbelief and terrible realization. 

Shinji gulped nervously, his own problems taking a back seat to the current situation, "Then there is a pilot inside, right? Another child?"

"That is irrelevant. You will destroy the angel," The commander ordered flatly. 

"But… AAAH!" Asuka did not have time to finish her sentence or fire as the Angel charged her.

"Asuka!" Shinji yelled. There was an agonizingly long silence before one of the technicians spoke.

"Eva Unit Two is disabled. The entry plug has been ejected. Retrieval crews are moving in." Shinji sat back in his seat at the technician's announcement, breathing the LCL heavily.

His left hand clenched and unclenched.

* * *

Rei centered the Angel's neck in the scope of her rifle. One shot, and the battle would be over. She knew only two ways to be certain to kill an Eva: Take out the power supply, or take out the entry plug. Currently, the only target available was the entry plug.

Unit Zero's finger twitched, but did not pull the trigger. She found she couldn't fire, not when she knew who was inside. But she had to obey the Commander's orders. She must defeat the Angel.

She hesitated too long

The Angel suddenly spun its eyes burning as it crouched. It jumped into the air, tackling Unit Zero and pressing its back into the ground.

Rei could only lay there, her Eva frozen along with her as time stretched into an eternity. The black Eva's hand closing on her Eva's throat, slowly reaching for her.

__

No…No… her mind cried out for her to defend herself, but she couldn't fight back without injuring the Pilot trapped inside, without hurting Ikari's friend. 

The black Eva's face split open in a grotesque grin as it unleash a rumbling growl. Its hand brushed against her armor. 

A roar ripped through the air as a purple blur crashed into the Angel, throwing it backwards into a hillside. 

Unit One reared back, grabbing its progressive knife and slashing the Angel. A massive gash appeared along the black Eva's right arm. As it raised its knife over its head grasped in both hands, the Angel lashed out, driving its hand into Unit One's face. Its arm suddenly extended, adding force to its strike and heaving the purple behemoth off of it. Unit One plowed into a hillside, shearing away the ground beneath it. It stood up again, leaving the shattered remains of its already torn umbilical embedded in the hill. 

The Angel tackled Unit one, driving it back to the ground. Unit One managed to twist over on top of the Angel, which grabbed hold of the Eva's arm. Both the pilot and the Eva roared in pain as the Angel began infecting the Eva's arm.

* * *

Maya Ibuki swallowed nervously at what she was seeing. While everyone else was engrossed in the battle, she concentrated on the readings transmitted from Eva Unit One. 

To say the information was disturbing was an understatement. Shinji's psychograph showed signs of contamination, and that the corruption was spreading. But it was going in the wrong direction, spreading from within Shinji into the Evangelion. His synch ratio was fluctuating so much she couldn't get a definite reading. 

Despite the fact that the other data remained unaffected, the comm signal was not reaching headquarters, and appeared to be blocked at the source. They had no way to contact the pilot, and now way see inside the entry plug. Suddenly new data appeared on the screen, making Maya's eyes go wide.

"Sir, the angel is infecting Unit One's right arm." the panic was evident in Maya's voice 

"Sever the Arm." 

"But sir, if the pilot is still connected…"

"Do it NOW!" the commander ordered.

Maya complied and began typing at the controls. When she reached the last keystroke she paused. She looked over at Aoba and Makoto, who both nodded. Maya turned back to the controls, closed her eyes and pressed the key.

Nothing happened. 

She checked the readouts again to be sure, but everything showed that the detonation signal had in fact been sent, though she was relieved that she didn't have to cause one of the children any more pain. 

Makoto looked over his own console, "The severance signal has been blocked. Unit One is blocking all outside transmissions."

"Sir, the affected tissue is regenerating at a rapid rate." Maya stated wit relief. "Unit One appears to be fighting the infection." 

* * *

Hyde cried out and grabbed his own arm where the Angel had taken hold of the Eva, the burning red light of the entry plug reflecting the sensation in his arm. He could feel the alien presence invading his body, the deadening pain in his own flesh. His rage grew as he stared through the eyes of Unit One to the beast holding him down. _How dare you… _He thought. _How DARE YOU?!_

His rage blinding him to the pain, Hyde focused on one thing. He wanted to hurt the Angel, to make it feel pain. Fueled by his anger, the Eva pushed its arms up, grabbing the angel's forearm with its right hand. He felt the sensation through the Eva as its fingers dug through the armor and into the flesh of the Angel. 

The Black Eva screamed as its own tissue was invaded, pushing trying to break away from Unit One. The purple Eva would not let go, and instead grabbed the Angel with its free arm, driving its thumb into the soft tissue above its shoulder. The Angel twisted and writhed as Unit One pulled itself up. 

The Eva delivered a vicious kick to the Angels abdomen, tearing away large chunks of flesh from the Angel as it was sent careening into a hillside. It did not give its opponent a chance to recover, charging forward and crushing the Angel's skull into the hill. 

Again and again the Eva struck, attacking the black armored form with wild abandon. The Angel just lay there, blood and gore covering the countryside, as Unit one tore through it, until it finally reached the spine and the entry plug.

Grasping the plug in his Eva's left hand, Hyde grinned darkly, a motion the Eva mirrored in fearsome parody. _Such a flimsy little thing_,he thought, the Eva's hand flexing around the plug. One little squeeze and…

He dropped the plug as a blue arm suddenly wrapped around him from behind and pulled him backwards. He spun, backhanding Rei's Evangelion. Unit Zero's head snapped to one side with the impact.

Unit One punched the Blue Eva in the stomach, then threw it to the ground behind it. Crouching down, the Unit One picked up its fallen progressive knife. It raised the knife into the air.

The power indicator reached 00:00:00.

The purple monstrosity's eyes went black as it fell forward into the hillside. For a few tense moments, Rei lay there, still unsure if it was over. When she was certain both the Angel and the berserk Unit One were inactive, she powered down her own Eva and ejected the entry plug. 

She watched as a disoriented Shinji Ikari emerged from his own entry plug, clutching his head in pain. As the realization of what had happened struck him he scrambled down from the Eva's back, dropping to the ground and sprinting towards the nearby entry plug of Unit 03. In a scene startlingly familiar to Rei , Shinji pried open the hatch of the plug with his bare hands, though this time the plug wasn't hot. 

Peering inside, Shinji saw the motionless form of his best friend, Touji Suzuhara, Laying motionless, blood running from his head and mixing with the LCL. His knees gave way beneath him, as he whispered, "What have I done?"


	10. No One Must Ever Know

Author's notes- Dang, it took a long time to write this. I apologize for the extreme lack of updates, but had a lot of stuff come up in the last few weeks and just finished with finals. I have no classes this summer, so aside from work, and I will be devoting most of my time to writing. If you are looking for something else to read, check out MiaElf's DBZ fic Mashed Mangled and Mall(ed) by a Princess, which I am writing the next few chapters for. On I side note, I just returned from Fanime in San Jose last Saturday, which brings Us to the next topic…

Author's Rant- There is one question that came to my mind while cosplaying at Fanime. WHY THE HELL DOES NO ONE FEAR GENDO ANYMORE? I only found one person that seemed to have any loathing to direct towards me, and a couple of people actually GLOMPED me! Has REDEATH totally killed Gendo's reputation as the Bastard King?!

Disclaimer- I do not own Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde.

The events after the battle with the Thirteenth Angel were a blur to him. Shinji remembered the medics taking Touji away on a gurney, the recovery team telling him nothing about the extent of his friend's injuries. He was alive, that was all he knew. On the ride back to headquarters he learned that Asuka was uninjured and that Misato had survived the attack, though the extent of her injuries were unknown at the time.

He hadn't bothered to shower after the battle. He couldn't get rid of the smell of blood if he had wanted to. He simply changed into his street clothes and started walking. Shinji couldn't even remember how he got to the elevator he was waiting for. He just stared at the door as the numbers counted down, anxious to go home.

The doors opened, and there stood his father, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki right behind him. His father looked down at him, and addressed him "Third Child."

"Father," Shinji replied, impassively.

Then he and He didn't even look up at his father as he and the Sub-commander passed.

Just before Shinji could step into the elevator, Gendo stopped and said, "Good work out there today, Shinji."

Shinji froze as he mind broke free of its stupor, his body shaking, taking time for every word to set in. He just kept staring at the elevator door, the uncontrolled tick of his left hand causing his entire arm to tremble in in turn. His father had just called him by his name.

__

Good work, Shinji.

His father was praising him.

__

Good…

Praising him for…

Work…

for… for almost killing his friend!

"You…" Shinji whispered, his voice trailing off as he turned around. Gendo heard the mumbling voice from his son, stepping closer so that he towered over Shinji.

"Is there something you wish to say, pilot?" He said, putting more emphasis on the last word.

"You BASTARD!" Shinji yelled, his fist exploding from his side and connecting with the Commander's jaw, knocking him flat on his back.

As the Commander sat up, Shinji stared down at him with a look of revulsion. " You son-of-a-bitch. My best friend was almost killed today, and you're congratulating me for doing it?!" He spat the words through his teeth. "How DARE you?!"

Not giving the commander a chance to respond, or before he could do anything that he might later regret, Shinji stormed past him and the startled Fuyutsuki. As the younger Ikari disappeared down the hall, the Sub-Commander helped Commander Ikari to his feet. "Well," he said, "I'll bet you didn't see that coming."

The Commander straightened his glasses. "No," he said rubbing his jaw, "I didn't"

As soon as he was out of sight, Shinji broke into a run, the feeling of fear running through his veins. Strangely, he wasn't afraid of his father or what he might do, though he was not in any hurry to get caught by the Commander's security goons. No, he was afraid of himself.

And the fear, the excitement, was delicious.

He slammed open a door leading into one of the stairwells, running down several flights before he stopped to catch his breath. He leaned on the railing, staring down into the chasm, breathing heavily.

This had not felt like the other times. He could feel the thirst inside him, the part of him that called itself Hyde wanting to get out, but he hadn't. _No_, Shinji thought, a manic grin spreading across his face, _this time I beat him to the punch._

He flexed his right hand, his knuckles feeling stiff and sore. He squeezed his fist with his left hand, popping his knuckles and sending a jolt of pain through his hand. _Damn!_

Shinji bent his fingers back the other way, the cracking sound and pain mirroring the moment when his fist collided with the his father's jaw. He chuckled to himself. _Damn, that felt good…_

"Looks like you decked the old man pretty good back there."

Much to his own surprise, Shinji did not jump at the voice behind him. Instead, he calmly turned around to face the unshaven man behind him. "How did you know so fast, Kaji?"

"I have my sources," the unshaven man said with a smirk, taking a box of cigarettes from inside his jacket.

"Besides," he said as he lit the cigarette, "I just saw the Commander holding his jaw the same way you're holding your hand, and I figured there had to be a connection."

Shinji looked down at his right hand, which he clutched absentmindedly in his left, and smiled at the memory of the impact. It was strange, he felt as if a great weight had been lifted off of him. He felt stronger because of it, and sick to his stomach because of it He turned back around, looking back down the staircase as he had before, while Kaji moved to join him.

"You doing ok, Shinji?"

"Considering what I did," he said sardonically, "I think I'm handling things pretty well."

"Well, it was only a matter of time before someone worked up the nerve to give the commander what he deserves."

"Not that," Shinji corrected him, "What I did to Touji.

"Shinji, you can't blame yourself for what your Eva did," Kaji said. "Even if your Eva hadn't gone berserk…"

"The Eva didn't go berserk," Shinji said, interrupting Kaji. _No, I was the one who went berserk…_

The gravity of what Shinji was admitting finally hit the double agent. "I see, that would explain a lot. Look Shinji, I know it may not seem that way, but if you hadn't acted things could have gotten a lot worse."

"Worse?!" Shinji shouted, his voice echoing down the concrete walls. "My best friend is in the hospital because of me. How could things get worse?"

"He could be dead," Kaji stated flatly, causing Shinji to draw back, leaning back over the railing. "That angel had to be destroyed, one way or , and if you hadn't done it they would have found another way. Do you think he would have survived if they had dropped an N2 mine on his Eva?"

Shinji had to admit, Kaji made a good argument. Touji could have been killed, or hurt much worse than he already was, but… "That still doesn't change the fact that I almost killed him. If Rei hadn't tried to stop me…"

He had been moments away from crushing the entry plug, for no other reason than to feel the sensation of power as the flimsy metal walls caved in beneath his fingers. Rei had stopped him, putting her own life in jeopardy. The progressive knife had been destined for her entry plug when the power in his Eva had run out. What if he lost control again the next time he got into Unit One? Would there be anyone there to stop him then? He might actually kill someone…

"I can't pilot the Eva anymore…" he whispered to himself.

"Hmm? What were you saying, Shinji?" Kaji asked, having only caught a portion of what he had said.

He ran the thought through his head again before stating with conviction, "I can't pilot Eva again."

"Shinji, I'm sure they'll let you pilot," Kaji said, trying to reassure the boy, then chuckling lightly, "though I can't imagine your father will be too happy with… "

"No, I mean, I'm never going to pilot again."

"Look Shinji, I know its hard to get in that thing," Kaji said, his voice holding none of the laughter it had moments before. "But they need you to pilot Unit One."

Shinji snorted in contempt. "You're just like everyone else," he growled. "The only thing you care about is that that damned machine has a pilot."

"No!" Kaji shouted, angered and wounded by Shinji's accusation. "I do care about you Shinji. And Asuka, and Misato, and everyone else caught up in this whole mess. But I also care about is the lives that 'damned machine' saves every time you get in it."

"Every time I get in that thing, more people get hurt," Shinji said. "Touji and Misato are already in the hospital because of Eva's. What if the next time it hurts Asuka, or even you?"

"Don't you think that I know the risks?" kaji said. "I just got back from the hospital with Ritsuko. I saw what happened to Misato. But you can't let fear control you."

"What if the next time someone gets killed?"

"As much as it pains me to say it, that would be a small price to pay for the number of lives that would be saved."

Shinji could only stare at Kaji, dumbstruck at what he had just said

"Shinji, if we don't stop the Angels, no one will be safe. All it will take is one. If even one gets past, we're all done for."

"What are you talking about?"

"Third impact." Kaji said, emphasizing his words. "The end of the world. It won't matter much if anyone gets hurt when we're all dead, will it?"

"I…" Shinji was torn. He knew he shouldn't force Asuka and Rei to pilot by fight the angels by themselves, but he couldn't put them and everyone else at risk by piloting. Asuka could handle anything that came at them, at least once he wasn't there to get in her way. "No, I've made my decision. Asuka and Rei can handle the angels without me."

Kaji sighed. "Its your choice, Shinji." He looked at his watch. "Damn. I have to meet the Commander and Sub-commander in five minutes."

He turned away from the railing, dropping the cigarette to the ground and grinding it into the concrete. He pushed open the door leading into one of the many hallways in Nerv and paused there. "I know I can't order you to pilot, and I have no right to question your decision after all you've gone through, but I'm disappointed. I expected better from you, Shinji."

And he was gone. Shinji gripped the railing hard, venting his frustration on the metal.

__

I'm disappointed in you, Shinji…

That hurt more than anything his father could ever do to him…

Shortly after his conversation with Shinji, Kaji stood before the elder Ikari and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. A battle waged across the Supreme Commander's desk, and though he stood on the Commander's side of the office, Fuyutsuki had the distinct feeling he was merely there as an intermediary, or as a witness should either of them snap and try to murder the other. The mutual loathing between the two men was obvious.

"Commander Ikari," Kaji greeted, warmly "Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki."

"Mister Kaji," Gendo returned. "Thank you for seeing us so promptly."

"I was almost detained. I trust you both are well."

Gendo stared over his hands at the spy. "Let's skip the niceties, shall we, and get to the matter at hand."

You know that we are well aware of your… 'extracurricular activities'," the Commander affirmed, "and that this was the reason for your removal from active battle duty."

Kaji was silent, but the Commander continued, "You are also aware that, if I wanted, I could have you executed for your actions."

Kaji smirked as he looked at the commander, and added, "Off the record, of course."

Ikari looked at the agent contemptuously. "The only reason you are still alive is that you may yet be useful to us."

"Oh?"

The Commander picked up a file on his desk, handing it to Fuyutsuki. "You know of the attacks against the Evangelion pilots?"

"I read the reports," Kaji confirmed, taking the file from the Sub-commander. "The suspect was never caught?"

"We don't _have_ any suspects," the Commander declared.

"Section Two is really slipping lately." Not that they were ever very effective at anything but standing around and acting intimidating before…

"Yes. As you can understand, our primary concern has been weeding out any candidates that could possibly pose a security risk," Fuyutsuki said, glancing at the Kaji, speaking for the first time since the meeting had actually begun. "Unfortunately, there are so many risky candidates, we've been forced to take whoever actually passes the screening process."

Kaji flipped through the folder, skimming the reports, glancing at a pair of grainy surveillance photos showing what appeared to be an adolescent male, with shoulder-length hair wearing a dark trench coat that appeared to be a few sizes too large.

"We have a name and descriptions of the attacker from both the first and second children, as well as partial descriptions from Major Katsuragi and Lieutenant Yamane's security team."

"But you still have no leads on who this guy actually is."

"We are awaiting a DNA analysis from Doctor Akagi," The Sub-commander said, "but given the apparent age of the perpetrator, we doubt he will turn up in any records."

"So, what do you want me for?"

"I'm willing to offer you a deal," Gendo said. "I'm prepared to overlook your earlier actions and start over with a clean slate. You'll be restored to full duty and given total access to all information you need to find this child."

"That's it?"

The Commander nodded. "But, if you cross me again, I will not be as lenient. Understood?"

"Perfectly."

"Dismissed."

Kaji started to leave. "Oh, I almost forgot. How's the jaw?"

The commander glared at him through his glasses, "It is fine."

Kaji smirked. "Just thought I'd be polite and ask."

After he was gone, the Sub-commander spoke up, "You were quite generous in that arrangement. Do you really think this is all necessary, just to find one teenager?"

"Mister Kaji will no longer be a problem. He may be a persistent detective, but he is not a fool. The boy, however, is an unforeseen complication. He has already changed The longer he is at large, the more of a threat he poses to the scenario."

Fuyutsuki nodded, not needing to continue the conversation any more. No matter what the topic might be, in the end, everything that Gendo was remotely concerned with eventually came back to how it effected his scenario.

Ritsuko lit another cigarette, before turning her attention back to her computer, typing away madly on her keyboard. She had been working nonstop since she had been pulled out of the Matsushiro facility. She had been relatively uninjured, only a few scrapes and bruises, which was surprising considering the damage the rest of the facility had sustained. The work had just been piling up since then. Maya had just finished removing the internal recorders from the entry plugs of both Unit One and Unit Three, and had delivered them before retiring for the night.

Maya still had no idea how lucky she actually was. Ritsuko had been debating whether or not to bring one of the technicians with her to the activation test, and Maya had been on the top of the list. It had been a last-minute decision to not take her.

Much of the observation deck had been obliterated in the initial moments of the Angel's attack. She and Misato had barely escaped, and Misato had a broken arm and a mild concussion. They had been among the few to survive the attack. An entire portion of the deck had been completely flattened by the angel.

Had Maya been with them, her post would have been in the center of it.

Ritsuko took another drag off the cigarette, staring up at the ceiling. Maya may not have been there, but a dozen others were. She let out a sigh, releasing the smoke. There was no point in dwelling on what could have happened. Those that lived, lived, and those that didn't…

She took off her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose where she had been wearing them for far too long. She found her attention drifting off and shook her head slightly to clear it. Looking at her watch, Ritsuko decided that she had been working long enough to justify taking a quick break to grab some coffee.

She stretched out her stiff muscles as she stood, running a hand through her hair. The coffee pot off to one side of the lab was empty, having been drained of the last of its contents just before the remainder of the lab technicians had packed up for the night. There was probably some near Central Dogma, but she did not want to go all the way to the command center for a cup of coffee if she was unwilling to take the time to make it on her own.

There was a vending machine in a small alcove in the hall outside, and though she typically did not like the coffee it produced, it was a better alternative than falling asleep at her desk.

The vending machine accepted her bills with a mechanical whir. Ritsuko briefly perused the selections, before pressing the appropriate button. A paper cup dropped down with a soft thump and the machine slowly filled it with its hot contents with more noise than should have been necessary.

Taking the coffee from the machine, Ritsuko briefly paused to be sure the drink wouldn't burn her. She took a drink, relishing in the warmth of the coffee. She could almost feel the caffeine hitting her veins. She took a few moments to enjoy her coffee and relax, the quiet of the alcove and the dim light provided by the vending machine proving surprisingly soothing. It was so quiet, she could actually hear her own breathing.

It was so quiet, she could hear the breathing coming from just behind her.

Ritsuko paused in mid-sip, the soft, almost silent, breathing seeming to echo in her ears. She had thought she was the only one left, aside from the graveyard shift up in Central Dogma and possibly a few security personnel.

In fact, there should have been no one in the science division at all other than herself. She slowly turned to see who the intruder was. It was probably nothing, but her hand tensed to throw the coffee in the person's face if she needed a quick getaway.

"Rei?"

The girl sat on a small metal and vinyl couch, more several chairs devoid of armrests with their legs welded together, dozing. She was still sitting upright, her hands folded in he lap, but her head was tilted to one side as her body threatened to tip over, a portion of her blue hair falling across her face and brushing against her nose.

Ritsuko's surprised voice was loud enough to wake her, and Rei slowly sat up straight, blinking a few times as she stirred. She looked at the doctor with a confused expression, still disoriented from her slumber. She mumbled sleepily, "Doctor Akagi?"

"Rei, what are you still doing here? Its…" she looked at her watch, not quite believing the time herself. "Its almost two in the morning. Why didn't you go back to my apartment?"

Rei answered, her voice still sounding groggy, "Commander Ikari ordered me not to return home unaccompanied."

"Why didn't you just ask for a ride home?"

"You were working. I didn't want to disturb you."

As apprehensive as she had been about having the first child staying with her, Ritsuko was forced to admit Rei had been a perfect houseguest. She was quiet, always woke up on time for school, made her own food. If not for the fact that an extra futon had bee laid out, one would have assumed that the doctor still lived alone in the apartment. The girl seemed to have gone out of her way to avoid being a burden on the doctor.

In the three days since Rei had started living with her, Ritsuko had felt quite useless as a guardian. The girl had no real need for her. She could take care of herself. If not for a single lapse in judgment, Rei would have been just fine on her own. Thought Ritsuko had never seen Rei this exhausted before, and the girl looked even more pale than normal today, almost as if… "Rei, have you eaten anything?"

"I ate this morning."

"What about later in the day?"

"Commander Ikari was forced to cancel our lunch this afternoon."

Though it seemed obvious to her, Ritsuko still asked, "You hungry?"

"I will be fine."

"That's not what I asked," Ritsuko said, folding her arms across her chest. The tone of her voice actually sounded like her own mother for a moment, on one of the rare occasions when she wasn't too busy with her job.

"I…" Rei started, before her stomach answered for her.

"Yeah, same here." Ritsuko said when she heard Rei's stomach grumbling. "Come on. Lets get out of here. We'll pick up something to eat on the way home."

"What about your work?" the tired girl asked.

Ritsuko smiled. There was nothing truly important for her to do. Most of the paperwork was routine reports, the rest… "It can wait until tomorrow."

It was the first time she had said something like that in as long as she could remember. She was leaving a good sized workload to wait for her when she got back, but it wouldn't take her too long and she would be able to think better after she got some sleep. Ritsuko told Rei to wait for her, and went back to her office.

She shut everything off, picking up a few stray folders and straightening the stack that had piled up on her desk in the last several hours. She failed to notice one that had fallen behind the desk. She locked the door behind her, the light filtering through the blinds over her window and reached underneath the desk barely illuminating a label that read 'DNA test results'.

Asuka stared at Shinji across the living room as she pretended to watch the television. There was really nothing good on He had been sulking all night long. Sulking wasn't even the right word for it. More like brooding.

The hospital was keeping Misato overnight, so it was just the two of them for the time being. Shinji hadn't bothered to make diner when he got home. He had just grabbed a cup of instant ramen and heated it up in the microwave. From the amount of time it took, the noodles were probably lukewarm. Hell, it was barely in there long enough for the noodles to soften up.

Stupid Baka, she thought as she watched him slowly devour the ramen, why the hell is he doing this to himself? She knew it was because of what had happened to Touji, but it wasn't Shinji's fault. And it sounded like the stooge was going to be fine, though that didn't matter to Shinji, who just used it as an excuse to slip even further into the depression that was already driving her insane.

She didn't know what she could do to break him out of it. He just sat there, hunched over the Styrofoam cup, his slumped shoulders barely moving as he ate. Asuka was going to give him a break and had eaten as small snack when she got back to the apartment, but she began to think that maybe cooking something would be able to get his mind off of his problems for a little while.

"Shinji?" He didn't respond.

"Hey, Shinji" she said, a little louder this time to be sure he had heard her, "Do you think you could cook something for dinner?"

He just sat there, no longer eating, but not moving either. Damnit, she was getting sick of this stupid self depreciating attitude of his, and she was tired of him avoiding and ignoring her.

"Hey Baka!" she shouted, frustrated, "I'm hungry!"

Shinji continued to look at the table while she waited for him to react. Finally he stood, picking up the ramen cup. He walked over to the wastebasket, dropping the empty container into it, then, without a word, walked out of the kitchen, down the hall and into his room, closing the door behind him.

Asuka could only stare after his retreating form. She cursed under her breath and turned off the television. She threw the remote control into the carpet, sending the battery cover and batteries flying away from it like shrapnel when it hit.

She stormed to her room slamming the door so hard that it rebounded completely. Asuka didn't really take notice, she just collapsed on her bed. She buried her face in the pillow, punching it a few times as she muttered, "Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

She wasn't even sure anymore if it wasn't herself that was the stupid one…

"Gott… verdammen…" she whispered, For all she knew, she was only making things worse. In fact, she was fairly certain of it. She didn't know what to do and she was tired, and her stomach felt twisted into knots. She didn't even want anything to eat, and the way her stomach felt she probably wouldn't be able to hold anything down either. She sniffed loudly into her pillow.

A shadow fell over her and she felt a slight weight rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. She turned her head and looked at her visitor, Pen Pen returning the gaze. The warm water penguin had wandered past her open door. Whether it had heard her, or seen her, or perceived through some animal intuition, the bird had sensed her distress and was trying his best to comfort her, despite the inherent risk involved.

Asuka's first response was to yell at the penguin and punt him out of her room, her second, to throw things at him till he left. But all he was doing was trying to cheer her up. It wasn't like he was trying to do anything perverted, he was only a penguin after all. She smiled at the bird in amusement. She reached over and softly patted him on the head, flattening the bright red feathers on his brow.

She scratched the feathers to fluff them up again. Pen Pen, feeling that he was no longer needed, turned around and started to waddle away, only to be grabbed from behind. He let out a sharp 'wark' as he was yanked back, relaxing when he realized the normally-volatile redhead wasn't trying to kill him.

"Danke," she said, giving the penguin a gentle squeeze. As silly as it seemed, she felt better, even thought she was still troubled about Shinji, and as Pen Pen waddled out of her room she was able to close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

Shinji lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling and listening to his S-DAT. He had heard Asuka's door slam over the sound of his music, and as far as he knew Asuka was already asleep in the next room.

She was just like the others, only she didn't care about whether or not he was a pilot, just as long as he cooked her dinner and her breakfast and packed her lunch for school every day. Normally he wouldn't have cared, and would have gladly cooked for her, but today he just wasn't in the mood to play the dutiful housebroken male.

He clicked the reverse on his S-DAT, bringing the tape back to the beginning of track 12. Over and over he played the track, one of the darker pieces on the tape.

The music fed his ire, but for some reason kept the beast inside him at bay, as if the dark tones were enough to satisfy him for the moment. It gave him time to think clearly, though nothing would come of those thoughts.

Shinji didn't know what he was going to do yet. He knew for certain he could never pilot again, but whether or not he would stay in Tokyo 3, or even if he would be allowed to stay, was another question entirely. Despite how much leaving would be better, something was holding him here. One thing was for certain, no one could ever find out what kind of monster he had become.

He would take that secret to the grave if he had to. But no one could ever know the things he had done.

Shinji tried to put it out of his mind and go to sleep, but he was too agitated. He was tired, but it was an exhaustion grown from fighting the hunger, a thirst inside of him. Not able to ascertain whether the thirst was real or imagined he stood up, taking the earbuds off. He slid open the door and walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, stealing a glance at Asuka's room on the way. He stopped. Her door was open.

As he stared at her sleeping form, the dim light from the hallway barely illuminating her features, highlighting the fretful look on her face, his thoughts returned to the decision he had yet to make.

And his thirst grew stronger.

A whispering voice at the back of his mind urged him to let go, to give in, to quench his thirst. He took in the vision of her beauty, the softness of her features. His skin felt hot, on fire. He swallowed loudly, his throat dry, and took a tentative step towards the open door. The whispering voice urged him on.

"No!" he hissed, the forcefulness of the thought silencing the voice for a moment. Then the thoughts, the thirst returned, louder, but Shinji's will was stronger than the whispers, at least for the moment. "No, not her. I won't do that to her."

Not waiting for the hunger to grow stronger, he ran to the living room, sliding open the door and He leaned over the edge, breathing hard. For the second time that day, he stared down into the abyss, his right had clenched into a fist.

The dark thoughts were practically screaming at him now, and he was growing tired of resisting them. "No, I can't do that to her…

The voice whispered, _but you want to…_

"I won't use her like that…

The voice laughed at him, _Then I will._

Shinji clenched his teeth, "No, I won't let you."

He placed his hands on the ledge, climbing onto it, staring down at the street beneath him. He crouched down, swinging one leg, then the other over the ledge, until he was dangling in mid air by his hands alone. Closing his eyes, he took a breath, steeled himself, and let go.

Shinji dropped to the balcony of the apartment beneath Misato's, landing harder than he thought he would, but without injury. He tried to slide the door open, and it was still unlocked from when Section Two had searched it. Traced back through his memories, heading for a closet in the front hallway. Sliding it open, he found what he was looking for.

Taking out the trench coat, he chuckled at the fact that Section Two had completely missed it. He took the wallet, still containing cash, and shoved it in his pocket. He had left his own wallet, his ID, cell phone and his keys upstairs. Without them there was no way to get back into the apartment.

"Alright," he muttered slipping on the trench coat. as he walked towards the front door. Shinji manually released the lock on the door, pushing it open. "You wanted to come out and play, well now's the time…"


	11. Reflection

Author's Notes- Okay, completely new chapter, spliced together from pieces cut from the last chapter and the beginning of the next chapter. The chapter title itself is temporary, until I find my songlist, which I seem to have misplaced. I added/split this chapter because the original was too long, and I wanted to make some changes after reading the reviews from the previous chapter. Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your input is important to me and does influence the course of the fic. Remember, reviewing is just like voting, except I don't hold recall elections .

Disclaimer- I do not own Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde.

Asuka waited outside for Hikari, holding the lunch she had made for herself that morning. It was the second day that Shinji had been absent from school. She hadn't seen him since the night after the battle with the thirteenth Angel, and his bed had not been slept in since then. She knew he had been back the night before, taking things that he needed, but he hadn't left.

At least not yet. He was only coming back when no one was home. Asuka had left the door unlocked the morning before, almost on accident. She had remembered it a few seconds after leaving, but had restrained from locking the door. But he was not going to leave without giving her a chance to have another talk with him.

She had made sure of that.

Right now she was content to wait until he decided he was ready to grow a spine and face her. She knew he wouldn't leave without taking his wallet and S-DAT player with him. They were both there when she woke the morning after he had left, and though he had been back in the apartment, he hadn't taken them.

No, he couldn't take it when she kept it with her whenever she had to leave the apartment. That had been a stroke of genius on her part. Though she had found herself running her fingers over the switches of the small player absentmindedly lately.

Asuka hadn't listened to what was on the tape. She didn't care to know what kind of music Shinji listened to, though she tried to guess. Probably soft soothing music. Old classical music, the kind they put on those crappy relaxation tapes because there were no royalties to be paid out. Boring music. Nothing with a halfway decent beat or vocals, if any of his music had vocals. She could see Shinji preferring purely instrumental music.

Then again, she could have be mistaken. Shinji could be listening to anything with those earbuds of his. He might be listening to rock, or pop music. Hell, he could be listening to Scottish bagpipes for all she knew.

She was tempted to go back to the classroom and grab the player, just to listen to a few seconds of music and confirm her hypothesis, but resisted the urge. Right now she just wanted to sit down and eat lunch with Hikari and get her mind off anything Shinji-related for a few minutes.

But after waiting for Hikari for half of the lunch period, she got impatient. She finally found Hikari in the classroom, still sitting at her desk, playing with the rice in her uneaten bento.

"Hey Hikari. You alright?"

"What?" Hikari said looking up from her bento and finally noticing Asuka. "Oh, sorry Asuka, I forgot you were waiting."

"Meh, its no big deal." Asuka said brushing off the apology. "But what's up with you lately? You've been completely zoned out the last two days. You didn't even notice when the teacher showed up."

"I just didn't get much sleep last night," Hikari explained. "I had too much on my mind."

"Is this about that ape, Suzuhara?" Asuka asked. She knew it was a bad idea to tell her that Touji got hurt, but she would have worried about him even if she hadn't found out, so it was better that she knew the truth.

"Asuka, that's not nice," she scolded. "You'd see that Touji is a very nice guy if you'd just give him a chance."

"Oh yes, nice." Asuka scoffed. "Trust me, you don't want to know what kind of a first impression he leaves behind."

"I've known him longer than you have, Asuka. He's just… impulsive. He does stupid things without thinking about them first sometimes."

"Yeah, yeah." Asuka realized she wasn't going to get through to her friend, and that putting down Suzuhara wasn't helping things. "You really are worried about him, aren't you?"

"Its… Its just not knowing how he's doing, that's all," Hikari said. "You haven't heard anything new?"

"Hey, if I knew anything, you'd be the first to hear about it. And no news is supposed to be good news" That did little to help Hikari's mood. Asuka sighed and pulled out her cell phone.

"I still don't know what you see in that stooge," she said, "but lets see what we can do."

Asuka quickly called Misato, who had been release from the hospital the day after Shinji had taken off. She had been spending much of her time at Nerv coordinating Section Two agents in searching the city for him. Despite the Commander's disapproval of her waste of Nerv resources, he allowed her to continue the search, even if it was only to placate her.

Asuka didn't have to wait long, as Misato picked up on the first ring

"Misato? Yeah we just started lunch." She frowned as Misato asked her about Shinji. "No, he didn't show up."

"Look, Misato I'm here with Hikari right now, and we were wondering, have you heard anything new about Touji?"

"That's great news Misato," she turned to Hikari. "Misato said he's awake and the doctors are looking him over this morning.

"What? Sorry Misato, I didn't catch that last part. Uh huh. Okay. Sure I'll ask her."

"What is it?" Hikari asked.

"Misato wants to know if you'd like to see him to day after school."

Hikari could barely contain her enthusiasm. "Yes! Well, if its not a problem. I mean, It would give me a chance to bring him all the assignments he's missed."

"Sure Hikari." Asuka said with a smirk. "I'm sure the stooge will really appreciate you caring so much about his academic performance. Misato? Yeah she says she'd love to."

Unfortunately, by calling Misato and asking about the stooge, Asuka effectively volunteered to accompany Hikari to see him.

Misato met them at the main gate, looking much less frazzled than she had when Asuka last saw her, though it was still strange to see her arm in a cast. Hikari, ever polite, asked Misato how she was doing, Misato answering that she would feel better after she was able to go home and relax.

Asuka mentally translated 'relax' as 'grab a beer… or twelve'.

While Misato went with Hikari to get a visitor's badge, she had Asuka go on ahead to Suzuhara's room to check in on him and tell him they would be there soon. She knocked on the door, and heard Suzuhara shout, "Come in."

She pushed open the door. Inside, Touji was sitting up in his bed, reading a sports magazine. He hadn't looked up yet, too engrossed in whatever he was reading. _Probably just looking at the pictures_, Asuka though, though she restrained from voicing the remark.

Okay, Asuka thought_, he hasn't done anything stupid…yet. You can afford to be nice to him this once. Just remember, your doing this for Hikari._

She closed the door behind her. "Hey stooge, how're you feeling?"

Sheisse! Well, maybe he won't notice the insult.

"Not bad at all, gorgeous," Touji said with a smirk, putting down his magazine. "They say I should be out of here in a couple of days"

Twitch. Gorgeous? Not that she couldn't understand, what with her stunning good looks and all, but the jock would never call her gorgeous, especially when it guaranteed a first-class ticket to pain central. Unless…"Okay, what kind of drugs have they got you on?"

"I have no idea, but they must be good, cause I feel great," he grinned. "So? Where's my get-well kiss?"

"What?!" Okay, screw polite. Drugs or no drugs, the idiot had just crossed the line. "What did you just ask me, stooge?!"

"Well, I have been sitting here alone this whole time, I thought the least I could get was a kiss from my girlfriend."

"What the hell?! Girlfriend?!?" She shook her fist over his head menacingly. "Did you actually damage that lump of rock you call a brain?"

"Ummm… yeah." He answered awkwardly, ducking to distance himself .

Oh crap, I was only joking, she thought, only now really taking note of the bandages wrapped around Suzuhara's head. She knew he got shook up pretty bad in the last battle, but she had no idea his injuries had been this serious. Why hadn't Misato told them? Oh no… How was she going to break it to Hikari? And Shinji? Shinji would probably blame himself for the whole stupid thing.

"Sorry," Touji said, grinning innocently. "The nurse said that a girl was coming to see me and I just assumed she would be my girlfriend, especially when I saw how damn hot you are."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not," Asuka said, still feeling a little flattered by Suzuhara's words, though she was not going to show it. "And what would give you the impression that I was your girlfriend anyways. You think you could possibly have a snowball's chance in Hell with me?"

"Well, you did take the time to come and see me, and you are the only one to visit me so far." He said that last bit with a disappointed frown. "I would have thought more of my friends would have been by to see me."

Asuka kept back a cutting remark about the number of friends Suzuhara had. A long, awkward silence passed before Asuka spoke up.

"Hey, I'm sure they all wanted to, but this is a military facility," Asuka said trying to cheer up the depressed jock and wondering where Hikari was. "Its kind of hard to just casually walk in here."

"But you went through all the trouble for me?" he said grinning childishly. "How sweet of you."

Asuka turned away, looking at her reflection in the mirror over the sink on the wall opposite from Touji's bed. _Ok Asuka, just stay calm. Breath in, breath out, breath in… _Crap, she couldn't keep this up forever. She had no reason to talk to Suzuhara, even when he had all his marbles with him. She had no idea what she was supposed to say to him now, especially when he was trying to flirt with her. _Where the hell are Misato and Hikari?_

_. . ._

Hikari was beginning to wonder what was taking Major Katsuragi so long. She had said she would be right back with that visitor's badge, but it had been several minutes already. She nervously drummed her fingers together in her lap. Misato had told her to wait, but she was a little apprehensive about Asuka and Touji being alone together for so long. She was already nervous enough about seeing him.

That, and sitting alone in the hallway was starting to make her uneasy. It was far too quiet, and colder than she would have liked. She hadn't seen anyone at all since Misato had left her there.

She walked over to the nurses station. Maybe if she asked politely they would let her in to see Touji without the visitor's badge. If not, then she could at least warn the nurse to have some extra bandages ready. She looked around for one of the nurses, but after a few moments of seeing no one, Hikari peered behind the counter. "Um, excuse me?"

There was no one behind the counter.

Maybe it was the cold of the hallway, or the hollow echo of her own voice off the empty walls, or maybe the product of too many nights watching her sisters play survival-horror games, but Hikari shivered, rubbing her arms as goose bumps rose up on her skin. She slowly backed away from the empty station, half expecting a mindless zombie to grab her and gnaw on her neck.

"Can I help you, miss?"

Hikari yelped, jumping a good ten centimeters into the air. _Ok, _she told herself_, its not a zombie, you're being silly. Now just turn around and forget those stupid video games._

She turned, looked at the pale, dead, open-jawed face and almost screamed. God, that leering face. He was wearing a black suit like a Section Two agent, but with that face and that disheveled black hair, he looked like he could have stepped right out of Biohazard.

Gulping to clear her throat she replied, "I… I'm just trying to find the nurse or a doctor…"

"A doctor? Are you feeling ill?" he asked, starting to get uncomfortably close. He ushered her back over to the chairs "Perhaps you should sit down,"

He ushered her towards the chairs.

"HEY!" came a voice echoing down the hallway. "What are you doing out here again?"

"Ah! Doctor Hartzell," the unnerving Section Two agent said jubilantly. "Looking lovely as always, I see."

"That doesn't answer my question," she said unfazed. "I thought I told you to stay at your post. Your disturbing the patients and my nurses refuse to work when you're around."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea I was such a distraction," he said, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I was just getting some green tea from the vending machine when I ran into this young lady here. You might want to take a look at her. I think she's sick."

The doctor pushed the agent out of the way. "Let me see." She looked Hikari over, noting that the color had returned to the young girl's face and that she seemed to be staring apprehensively at the Agent.

"She's not sick, you idiot," the doctor said, "you just scared the hell out of her."

"But she said she was looking for a doctor."

"I just wanted to find someone who can tell me where Touji Suzuhara is," Hikari said timidly.

"You must be Hikari," the young doctor said. "Major Katsuragi informed us you were coming in today."

"Can you tell me anything about how he's doing?"

The doctor shook her head "Sorry, but I'm not his physician. I don't know the particulars of his case."

"Oh."

"But I don't see why you can't go see him now. His room isn't far from here."

"Really? Thank you very much doctor." Hikari said enthusiastically but still politely. "But what about the visitor's card. Major Katsuragi said she needed to get me one."

"That's not a problem. Agent Kimura is the guard on duty today. And since he has already met you, I doubt he'll put you under arrest."

The agent in question raised his hand to correct the doctor, confirm her assurance, or to volunteer his services in escorting Miss Horaki to Mister Suzuhara's room. But he didn't get a chance as the doctor reacted quicker than he could.

"You!" Doctor Hartzell shouted, snapping her fingers and pointing down the hall. "Back to your post before I call your Lieutenant."

"Ah, yes, I should be getting back anyways," the agent said. "I'll just grab that tea on the way back."

With that the agent left, walking calmly down the hallway talking to himself. Hikari was almost certain she caught something about 'school uniforms' in his monologue, but couldn't be certain and was pretty sure she didn't want to know.

"Umm, is that guy…" Hikari started to ask, not quite sure how to politely phrase what she wanted to say.

"Kimura? He may be creepy and a nuisance, but he's harmless," the Doctor assured her. "I actually met his family when I went out a few weeks ago. He has a charming wife and they have a beautiful little girl. He's actually a very nice person, even if he does act strangely. "

Hikari was still a little skeptical, but there were more important things on her mind. "Could you show me where Tou… Mister Suzuhara is?"

"Sorry, but I have to see another patient," she said, smiling at the self-conscious and nervous Hikari, "but his room is number 428. Just go down this hallway, take the first right, then another right at the end of that hall. His room is on the left side of the hall."

Hikari repeated the directions in her head, thanking the doctor again before leaving at an enthusiastic pace. She saw Agent Kimura in the hallway, he still had that strange, leering look on his face, but she still smiled politely. The agent returned the smile, inclining his head towards her as he passed by on his way back to his post.

Hikari followed Doctor Hartzell's directions, counting down the numbers on the left side when she got to the right hallway. 434... 432... 430... 428. She stood there in front of the door for a few moments, trying to calm the fluttering in her stomach and heart. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand to knock.

Before the strike could fall, a pair of lean, but no less powerful arms ensnared her. One wrapped around her waist and pulled her backwards, her fingers barely brushing the door in their fall. She cried out in panic, he voice dying in the hand that covered her mouth. She struggled against her captor, but whoever it was slightly stronger than her, managing to pin one arm and resist the other which pried at the fingers covering her mouth. But Hikari continued to struggle, even as she was pulled into a small room nearby.

Next chapter-the Act 1 finale: The arrival of the Angel of Might.


	12. The Way Back

Author's Notes- several weeks and five states later ( California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, for those of you who are curious) I finally finish this chapter and get it posted. There will be more notes at the end (if anyone actually reads them).

Disclaimer: I do not own _Neon Genesis Evangelion _or _Jekyll and Hyde._

. . .

Shinji groaned as he tried to wake up. He opened his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the darkness as he stared up. _Unfamiliar ceiling…_

He sat up and his head immediately throbbed to scold him for staking such a fast movement. He rubbed his temples, and the pain slowly ebbed away. _Damn that hurts,_ he thought. _What happened last night?_

Judging by what he could see, the room was small, no bigger than his room at Misato's apartment. He looked around, hoping to find some clue to what he had been doing. The had to be something…

He went pale at what he saw not far away from himself.

"Oh god", he said, his voice sounding painfully loud to himself. "What did I do now?"

. . .

Leaning forward in his seat, Kimura took a sip of his green tea. The canned drink tasted a little too bitter in his mind. He had become too used to drinking tea from the thermos his wife usually prepared for him. Kimura smiled, _She spoils me far too much._

Of course, he wasn't any better, not with the way he spoiled his daughter. His little princess. She was almost as old as that girl he had seen in the hallway, and was getting to be quite the handful. Just last week she had come home from school wanting to dye her hair blue. They had managed to talk her out of it by pointing out how unnatural it would look on her. She had pouted for a while about them being unfair, but had finally conceded.

Now she was trying to convince them to let her dye it purple.

He shook his head, wondering when it was he had become such an old man. He used to be cool, and now he was a 'parent'. His wife insisted he was still cool, and he could only suppose that was true. Everyone always assumed he was a bachelor, and they always seemed surprised when they learned he had a wife and little girl.

He scanned the monitors in front of him. It was pretty quiet in the hospital today, only a few visitors, so there wasn't much to keep an eye on. He switched to another set of cameras.

"Hmm…" The camera in 426B was out. He tapped the screen a few times with no effect. The surveillance system was notoriously glitchy, but that camera had been working the last time he looked. It was probably nothing, but he'd call in a maintenance team to check it out later.

****

. . .

Asuka again found herself nervously checking outside the room. Again, she had been sure she had heard something, but this time the hall was empty. This first time she had checked, a Section Two agent had been walking past.

"What do you keep looking for?" Touji asked.

"Misato," Asuka said. "She should have been back here by now.

Touji smirked. "Maybe she wanted to give us a little more time alone?"

Asuka growled when he winked at her. She seriously wanted to beat the living hell out of the idiot at this point. _Brain damage or no brain damage, he had better lay off the lame pick up lines and innuendo, or so help me, I will not be held responsible for my actions. _"She said she'd be right back. How long does it take to get a visitor's badge for Hikari?"

"H…H…Hikari?!" Touji stammered, his skin going pale.

Asuka narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Yeah, Hikari. Why are you acting so strange? Does her name sound familiar to you?"

"Oh, no. No, not that, no, I just…" The stooge took a second to explain. "I didn't expect anyone else to be coming in today, that's all."

Asuka didn't let it show, but she didn't buy his explanation for a second.

****

. . .

Hikari tried to pry the fingers away from her mouth so she could scream, but her captor wouldn't let go. She gave up on that and started to pound her fist against the arm encircling her waist. Her had hurt from striking the arm, which seemed as hard as stone, but she had to get away somehow. The only thing that mattered was getting free, seeing her friends again, seeing Asuka, and her sisters, and Touji again.

"Ow!" her captor whispered loudly behind her. "Dammit, Hikari, that hurts!"

Hikari's eyes widened as she recognized the owner of the voice.

"Misato?!" she shouted, or would have if said person didn't still have her fingers clamped tightly over her lips.

"And will you keep it down?" she said, directing her attention somewhere else. "You're going to spoil everything."

Hikari followed her gaze, almost jumping when she saw Asuka standing right in front of her. Asuka didn't notice her, and instead seemed to be getting rather impatient.

Still a little shaken from her 'abduction', Hikari spoke with a little less politeness, but managed to control the volume. "Misato, what the hell are you doing?"

"Shhhhh…" Misato removed the finger from in front of her lips, grabbing a bag of snacks and holding them up with her cast-covered arm. She grabbed a beer, using one finger to open it while the other four held the can in an unbreakable grip, then flipping her grip to shift the Yebisu into drinking position. "You missed the beginning, but maybe there will be some more action soon."

"What are you doing?" she asked, looking at the food clutched in the crook of Misato's injured arm. "And why do you have your cast out of its sling?"

"Bleh," Misato said as she made a dismissive motion with her beer. "I'm fine. I broke my arm before when I was in college." That was an interesting memory, though she didn't exactly recall the incident itself. She did remember going out to the party, and the beer, but she couldn't remember falling down that flight of stairs. "It was much worse break than this one. Those doctors are always being overprotective so they can cover their asses."

"What happened to Touji's head?" Hikari gasped, worried when she saw the bandages.

"Oh he's fine, just cut his forehead, but it makes a good prop. He's actually doing a good job pretending to have amnesia." She took a drink of the Yebisu while she watched the scene in front of her.

"Misato!" Hikari whispered harshly. "That's a cruel trick to play on Asuka, especially with Shinji missing."

"Shinji's fine. He's staying at a hotel on the edge of the city. A couple of agents caught up with him this morning and are keeping an eye on him" Misato said, though it had taken Section Two much longer to find Shinji than she would have preferred. A pair of the agents was waiting for him, but had been told to give Shinji his space. She was still holding out hope that Shinji would come back on his own. "And besides, I'm doing this _for_ Asuka and Shinji's benefit."

"I don't quite follow."

"Well, you know how Asuka gets when Shinji does something she thinks is stupid?" Misato asked. Hikari nodded, picturing a shouting fist-waving Asuka towering over a cowering Shinji. "Well, I thought she might give Shinji a break if she was angry with someone else when he finally homes home. You know, like a diversion."

Hikari was skeptical of Misato's motives, but as long as it didn't get too out of hand, she would allow Misato and Touji to play their little game

****

. . .

Asuka was certain now that Touji was faking his amnesia, but she couldn't figure out why. For one, Suzuhara wouldn't dare take the risk he was taking under normal circumstances, and secondly the stooge couldn't come up with this plot on his own. Even as stupid as it was, it was still beyond Touji's capability to grasp. So the question was who had the ability to plan this out, gain access to Touji while he was in the hospital, and was capable of convincing the jock to risk his life in going along with it?

There was only one purple haired suspect she could think of.

That's why she wanted me to see Touji before Hikari could. Very clever Misato, Asuka thought as she smirked to herself_, but you should have learned by now. No one outsmarts the great Asuka Langley Sohryu._

Asuka smirked to herself. "So, you really don't remember anything?"

"Nope." he said, shaking his head.

"Not even how to read and write? Or even how to feed yourself properly."

"Hey! I do remember how to do those things!" he protested.

"Well, I'm sure anything would have to be an improvement over the way you acted before. I'd swear you were illiterate, and had the table manners of a baboon." Asuka grinned as Touji almost broke character. But he caught himself and just kept grinning dumbly, though Asuka could swear his teeth were clenched together tighter.

She turned towards the mirror. Glancing at one of the corners. She could see now that the mirror was silvered on the outside, not on the back like a normal mirror. A dead giveaway that it was a two-way mirror. She pretended to check her hair, but was just giving Misato and the rest of her spectators a better view of her act. "Of course, that last one was kinda fitting, seeing as you smell like one most of the time."

Asuka was forced to admit that the moron was a better actor than she would have given him credit for. He managed to keep his cool despite the insult, but he was still no match for her, and since she had an attentive audience, she was going to give them the performance of a lifetime. She looked at Touji's reflection in the two-way mirror, catching a glare from the stooge.

Asuka's smile dropped as she looked down and away from the mirror, staring down into the sink. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that…"

"Wha?" Touji uttered, certain he hadn't heard correctly. _Did the devil just apologize for something?_

"I know its how I usually act," Asuka said, looking down into the sink, "but I shouldn't have said something so mean, especially when you're in the hospital and all."

"Touji? Do you really have amnesia?" Asuka said, looking at her own reflection in the mirror, her face a mask of anxiety. "If you aren't, and this is all a joke, I'll understand. I probably deserve it for the way I've always treated you."

Touji could only sit there dumbstruck.

"I know you say you don't remember , but I was never really nice to you. If I could take it back I would but…" Asuka's voice broke, and it took her a moment to regain "I mean, can we just forget all the things I've ever done and start over?"

"Um… Sure." Touji said.

"Really?" She said turning back toward Touji, a tentative smile on her face and her eyes glistening. Touji nodded. Asuka's smile widened. "Thanks"

She walked over and sat down next to him. "Touji, I was wondering… Do you still want to kiss me?"

"W…w…what?!"

"I just can't keep pretending anymore." She said, leaning forward, her hands on the bed on either side of him. "I've always been attracted to you, ever since I first saw you out at sea, but I was too stubborn to admit it."

She edged closer, fixing him with a smoldering gaze.

Touji gulped loudly.

"Come on, stooge. I want that kiss." She pursed her lips and closed her eyes.

Touji screamed.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Misato! Help! The demon's possessed! THE DEMON'S POSSESSED!"

He scrambled away to avoid the crazed redhead, tumbling backwards off the bed and barley catching himself by the bed sheets before he could crack his skull against the floor.

"Aww, poor Touji," Asuka said with mock concern as she leaned over the bed to look down at him. "Did you hurt yourself again? Want Asuka to kiss it all better?" she said grinning at him for a moment before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Ha ha. Very funny Devil-girl," Touji growled through his teeth as he pulled himself back up. He shook a fist at her threateningly. "Hows about I show you MY punch line?"

"TOUJI SUZUHARA!"

Touji froze, slowly turning toward the angry voice, toward the vision of pigtailed fury standing in the doorway. "C… C… Class Rep! I uhhhhh…"

"You weren't threatening Asuka right now, were you Mister Suzuhara?" Hikari inquired, putting all the authority in her voice she could muster.

Touji immediately dropped both hands to his sides, trying to appear as innocent as he possibly could. "I wasn't doin' nothing. I was just defending myself against this lunatic."

"Don't play innocent with me Touji Suzuhara. I know all about the mean joke you and Major Katsuragi tried to pull on poor Asuka."

"Ah, lighten up Hikari," Touji protested. "It was just a little prank. Its not like she didn't deserve it after all the crap she puts us through"

"That's no excuse," Hikari scolded.

"Yeah, that's right Hikari. Don't buy anything this stooge says," Asuka shouted, before adding an over-acted sniffle. "I think I'll be scarred for life because of this."

"Oh, lose the act already, LucifeOW!" Touji shouted as Hikari whacked him on the back of the head. She immediately looked regretful when she saw Touji rubbing the back of his skull in pain.

"Oh I'm sorry Touji," she said apologetically. "I didn't mean to hit you so hard. Does it hurt?"

"Please," Asuka said caustically. "there's nothing in that skull to hurt."

Hikari didn't seem to hear her, and instead was intently listening to Touji who was busy putting on his . "Nah, it don't hurt that bad," he said. "Just avoid hitting the stitches the next time I say something stupid, okay. Wouldn't want to hurt what little I have left up here, would ya?"

Touji grinned and Hikari started giggling. Asuka rolled her eyes in disgust at both of them while Misato, her arm once again in its sling, stood back and watched the whole sight with a big grin on her face, chuckling lightly.

Asuka turned towards the sound and fixed Misato with an annoyed glare. "And what are YOU so happy about? Don't think I forgot about your little part in this scheme." She smirked mischievously. "If you think you're getting off THAT easy, you…"

Both Asuka and Misato's cell phones rang simultaneously.

"Saved by the bell…" Misato muttered dryly as the others looked on apprehensively. As she answered the phone. "Katsuragi… What?! How come we didn't detect it sooner? No, never mind. I'm on my way. Get Rei into her Eva immediately, but don't launch until its absolutely necessary. Wait until Asuka and I get there."

"Another Angel?" Asuka said as Misato hung up the phone. "So soon?"

"Somehow I don't think they follow a schedule," Misato said as she dialed another number. "This is Katsuragi. Is he still there? Good, get him inside the geofront. If he won't pilot, then at least get him to a shelter where he'll be safe."

"Was that about Shinji?" Asuka asked.

"Yes, he's fine, but we can't worry about that now. We have to get you to your Eva."

"Should we get to a shelter?" Touji asked, unconsciously holding Hikari's hand.

"No," Misato said, "you'll both be just as safe here as in any of the shelters.

"O…Okay" Hikari said.

"Come on. Lets go," Misato said to Asuka.

"Okay," Asuka said, following after the violet-haired major. She stopped at the door and shouted to Touji. "Hey, Stooge."

"Yeah, devil?"

"You behave like a gentleman with Hikari," she threatened, "or I swear I'll shove my Unit Two's size five hundreds up your…"

"Okay! Okay! I get the picture," he said, interrupting her, shuddering as the image wormed its way through his head. "Now would ya stop tormenting me and go kick that Angel's ass!"

****

. . .

Shinji lay back on his bed after picking up a little bit of the trash that had been strewn about the hotel room floor, trying to get the headache to go away. He had no idea how much he had actually had to drink over the past few days, but judging by the trash on the floor of the room, it included at least six beers and a whole bottle of sake. Of course, the dull, throbbing pain in his skull told him that this might be just last nights leftovers.

He had spent a great deal of time wandering around the past few nights, in both of his identities. He had passed by Rei's building sometime during his drifting. Her apartment was abandoned, the door left hanging open and the litter from her floor fluttering in the breeze. He wandered through downtown Tokyo 3, the school, a public park. He was pretty sure that last one was where he got the beer.

There had been a trio of high school boys there. They were drinking, and the apparent leader of the group had taken a liking to his trench coat and tried to take it from him.

Unfortunately for them, Shinji wasn't the one in the pilot's seat at the time, and his other self didn't take it well when one of the boy's grabbed his arm. He gave at least one of them a broken arm, and the others would have marks that would last for several weeks. The beer had probably seemed like a fitting trophy at the time, the sake though… He had no clue where he had gotten that from, but when the alarms started to go off, he wished he hadn't found either.

Great, Shinji thought, pulling a pillow over his head. _He gets drunk, I get stuck with the hangover._

He had no idea how Misato could stand this every morning. Probably why she started each day with a beer. He didn't know if it actually helped, but it was tempting to try. Of course, it was a moot point as all the alcohol in the hotel was now gone. Probably a good thing it was. With his luck it would probably only make things worse

As if the alarms weren't enough for his headache, someone decided this was the perfect time to start knocking on the door to his room.

"Just a second…" he mumbled.

More pounding, louder this time.

"Just a second!" He shouted, immediately regretting it, as the pounding in his head intensified.

He rolled out of the bed, landing on his hands and knees, dragging himself to his feet. He staggered over to the door and opened it, squinting in the blinding light at the two people standing outside his room.

"Shinji Ikari?"

"Yeah?" he answered, already fairly certain of who his visitors were.

"Please come with us, sir."

"You're wasting your time. I won't pilot any more," Shinji grumbled, irritated.

The Section Two agent let out a frustrated sigh, obviously in no disposition to deal with moody teenagers. "Frankly, sir, I don't care. My orders are to get you to safety inside the geofront."

Seeing few alternatives, Shinji picked up a plastic shopping bag containing some of his things and joined the two agents outside. A black van was waiting in the hotel parking lot. Shinji got inside the back of the van as the two agents climbed in the front and began to drive.

****

. . .

Asuka pressed the switch on the wrist of her plugsuit, letting out a nervous breath as the suit conformed to her body. She had not had a chance to feel anxious until now. The angel was fast approaching, much faster than something its size had any right to. To her knowledge, Section Two had not brought Shinji in yet. As much as she welcomed the opportunity to prove her superior piloting ability, it was going to be her first time going up against an Angel alone.

"Pilot Sohryu."

Well, Almost alone.

"What do you want, Wondergirl?" Asuka growled. She had seriously been hoping Rei wouldn't show, if only so she wouldn't have to deal with her. Asuka had assumed Rei would be the first one there, but the blue haired girl was still in her school uniform.

Rei either ignored Asuka's jab, didn't notice, or simply didn't care. "Where is Pilot Ikari?"

Asuka snorted. "Why should I know where that Baka is?"

"You are his roommate," Rei stated, thinking her reasoning should have been obvious. "I thought you might know something about his absence."

"Well, he hasn't been home for a few days," Asuka said, trying not to let either her concern for Shinji or her anger with him for disappearing on her leak through into her words. "And I'm not sure when he's going to be back."

She didn't say 'if'. She knew Shinji would be back, eventually. He had to come back. Her mind wouldn't let her think anything else.

"Oh," Rei said, sounding disappointed, at least for her. She opened her locker, removing a white plugsuit from within it.

"And why do you care?" Asuka asked. Hating it that Rei was "Worried about taking on this Angel without the invincible Shinji? Or does the doll just miss having her boyfriend around to play?"

"I am not a doll," Rei replied calmly, though a slight blush had crept into her cheeks, "and Pilot Ikari is not my… boyfriend, as you put it."

"Really," Asuka said, smirking at the fact that she got to the First child in some way, and a little surprised at Rei's last assertion. "Then why all the heartfelt concern? Or is this just something the Commander told you to do?"

"No, I was not ordered to speak to you about this. I do so because pilot Ikari is my friend, and I am concerned for his well being." She paused for a moment. "I would assume that you are concerned for him as well?"

Asuka froze for a second, uneasy that Rei had hit pretty close to the mark. She managed to keep herself from stammering like an idiot when she finally answered. "Me? Why should I care about what happens to that idiot?"

"I assume that the two of you are friends," Rei said, "despite many of your actions towards him.

Asuka knew Rei was right about the way she treated Shinji, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. She knew how friends were supposed to be treated, and she didn't need to be told how to behave by a doll. "And what about you Ayanami? I've never seen you act friendly toward anyone, let alone him. And what is it with you refusing to call him 'Shinji'?" Asuka countered. "If he's supposed to be your friend, why do you always call him 'Ikari'? "

There was an elongated silence as Rei considered Asuka's words.

"He never asked me to do so. I did not know if it would be appropriate or not." Rei answered, pausing to think, "but if you think it is appropriate, then I shall do so."

Asuka rolled her eyes. Ayanami still had to be told what to do, even when she professed to be acting of her own free will. She knew that, at least from her grades, Rei was no idiot, but there were times when she was so dense it was absolutely infuriating.

"Do you wish for me to call you 'Asuka' as well?"

Asuka slammed her locker shut. "I never said WE were friends, Wondergirl."

Rei blinked at Asuka's sudden outburst before responding. "Very well. I apologize if I have offended you, pilot Sohryu."

"Just hurry up and get dressed. I want to kill this angel and get out of here." Asuka growled, storming out of the locker room before Rei could say any more insightful little tidbits. The First child had said more in the last two minutes than Asuka could ever remember her saying in an entire day. And it infuriated her that Rei would dare think she knew so much about her and what she thought about Shinji.

Even if she was on track with some of what she had said, Asuka was not going to let Ayanami think she had gotten the upper hand or that she could get inside her head. It was the principle of the whole thing. It was like being ridiculed by a monk on the one day of the year he was allowed to speak.

****

. . .

Shinji sat against one of the walls of the shelter, a CD player in hand. He had found it while picking up the hotel room and had shoved it into the plastic shopping bag along with his coat and a few CDs. He assumed he had bought the player, in the same way he assumed he paid for the hotel room. Most of the money that had been in his procured wallet was now gone. What remained amounted to about ¥1000, which he had left behind at the hotel for whoever had to clean up after him.

Listening to the music, he thought of how strange it was. Despite the differences between he and his other self, they both still enjoyed music. Granted, the selection of Cds, with their hard, loud sound, was not what he would have ever purchased on his own, but he could not say that he hated it.

He was currently listening to a foreign album titled _Sehnsucht, _the volume turned down enough that it didn't cause him a spliting headache, yet still loud enough to drown out the noise of the people around him. He had no idea what any of the lyrics meant, but he did hear a few familiar words.

It took him a second to realize he was listening to German, what he recognized being words Asuka used in conjunction with curses usually directed at him. He smiled at the thought of the vibrant girl. _She would probably know what they were saying, _Shinji chuckled to himself, _then she'd probably hear something perverted and smack me for making her to listen to it._

His smile disappeared as he thought of how he would probably never see her again. The past few days had been rough for him, but nothing he couldn't handle, But he never realized how much he would actually miss his friends, the people at Nerv, Misato, Rei, Asuka. He had finally made up his mind. He would leave Tokyo 3 at the first opportunity that presented itself. He wasn't going to delay the inevitable any longer.

The song ended, and he hit the back button on the player. Almost immediately track two began playing again. The shelter was slowly filling up as more people made their way down into the geofront. The section two agents had stayed above to help people get inside the shelter, leaving Shinji on his own.

The tempo and volume of the music picked up as a tremor shook the shelter. Shinji looked up as the lights flickered for a moment. The people around him looked as well, but immediately shifted their attention back to whatever diversions they had on hand. Another tremor came, shortly followed by another, and another.

Footsteps. Big footsteps.

Ignored by the people around him, Shinji headed towards one of the seldom-used shelter exits that led into the geofront itself. Curiosity was getting the better of him. He had to see what was going on, if only to know Asuka and Rei would be fine without him. Of course he knew it wasn't a smart idea. Hell, you would have to be an idiot to…

"Oh man, this is so cool."

"Kensuke"

"Hey Shinji" The amateur cameraman said almost absentmindedly, only reacting after a few moments and nearly dropping his camera. "Shinji?! What are you doing here? Why aren't you out there with Ayanami and the Devil?"

Shinji looked at the awaiting Evangelion, Asuka's Unit Two, standing near a weapons tower holding a pallet rifle at the ready. He didn't see Rei's Unit Zero and briefly wondered why she hadn't been sent out in it to back Asuka up. "I'm no longer an Eva pilot."

"You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm serious."

"But you're their best pilot. How can they…"

"They didn't do anything, Kensuke. This was my choice." Shinji explained. Kensuke was speechless, and the entire geofront seemed to join him in that moment. Shinji thought saying it aloud would be like a weight lifted from his shoulders, but the tension was still there hanging silently over him.

The silence was broken by a massive explosion, both Kensuke and Shinji turning their eyes skyward, as burning slabs of rock and armor were sent crashing to the floor of the geofront far below.

Asuka's Eva raised its rifle as the massive form of the fourteenth Angel descended with a effortless grace that belied its massive form. Unit two and numerous artillery opened fire upon the Angel, which continued to move steadily onward despite the onslaught being directed upon it.

Shinji could only stare in petrified awe, as the beast took on the combined assault of twin rocket launchers, Unit two having already emptied three pallet rifles. Asuka emptied both the launchers, lowering them as the air cleared. The Angel stood amid the smoke an dust, seeming to regard Unit two with detached amusement, completely unscathed.

Kensuke kept recording, his camera steady, despite the fact that the rest of his body was shaking. "They're going up against that thing by themselves?"

****

. . .

"Come on! Die already!" Asuka dropped the two pallet rifles, picking up a pair of rocket launchers and unloading them on the Angel. Pairs of deadly missiles streaked from the twin launchers and detonated against the Angel. One after another the warheads exploded, until the Angel was completely enveloped by smoke and dust.

"That got him," Asuka breathed in relief.

"Asuka! The Angel is still active," Misato shouted over the radio.

"What?! I was neutralizing it's A.T. field wasn't I? That thing's got to be dead." But Misato's information was confirmed by the sight of the fourteenth angel standing directly in front of her, its flat arms unfolding from its sides, its eyes glowing dimly in the haze.

"Yes, but… Asuka! Wait!" Misato shouted, but Asuka had already grabbed an Axe from the weapon's tower and had whirled to face the Angel.

"Why won't you DIE?!" Asuka cried as she charged the angel, hefting the axe over her shoulder. The Angel leaned towards the charging Eva, its ribbon-like arms prepared to strike, and with lightning speed they lashed out at Unit Two.

With great force, metal met with metal-like hide, and the angel reeled to one side as the bullet from Rei's sniper rifle collided with its head. One of its arms glanced of the chest of Asuka's Unit Two, and the Eva grasped the wound with one arm as Asuka cried out in pain.

"Damn it Wondergirl!" Asuka yelled. "I don't need your help!" She swung the axe, which collided harmlessly against the Angel's skin. Though the Angel did recoil from the blow, the axe failed to gain purchase. Raising the axe again, she swung harder, this time imbedding the blade in the Angel's shoulder. The beast pushed her away, retracting its arms along the Eva's legs slicing into its calves.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Asuka drew her progressive knife. Another shot from Rei's position slammed into the Angel's abdomen, just shy of its S2 organ. The Angel turned its attention on Rei, turning as its arms shot out towards her position. Rei's Unit Zero rolled aside as the Angel's arms cut through the ground she had been only moments before. Using the momentary distraction, Asuka rushed the Angel, Stabbing at the exposed crimson orb.

The blade sparked and screeched as it met with resistance, the Angel having closed a pair of metallic shutters over its core. Asuka cursed loudly, trying to wedge the knife between the shutters without success. The Angel attempted to counterattack, drawing one of its arms back around. Asuka dropped the progressive knife, grabbing hold of the Angel's appendage before it could strike, the razor-sharp edge cutting into her Eva's hands. She quickly grabbed the other arm, effectively immobilizing the Angel.

"Wondergirl! Hurry it up and blast this damn thing!" Asuka shouted over the comm as she tried to hold on to the extremely powerful thrashing Angel. Rei took aim quickly and fired, the bullet ricocheting off the armored shell over the core.

"Come on First Child, fire again!" Asuka shouted. "I don't want to have to hold on to this thing all day!"

"Understood." Rei answered, firing another round at the Angel, then another. It was obvious the Angel was hard for Pilot Sohryu to hold, but with every shot the Angel's struggles seemed to weaken. Her shots were starting to make dents in the angel's armor, but with its struggling the Angel's core was a difficult target.

The angel seemed to relax in Unit Two's grasp, staring at Rei with its emotionless face. She was about to squeeze the trigger again, staring back at the glowing eyes of the angel, eyes that steadily grew brighter with each moment. Rei's eyes widened as realization hit her, and she dove to one side, thought it was not fast enough for her to avoid the blast completely.

****

. . .

"Rei's unconscious," Ritsuko reported, "Her vitals are stable and she appears to be physically unharmed, but there is substantial thermal damage to Unit Zero's forward armor and surface tissue. "

"Asuka, don't let that thing go," Misato yelled. "Just hold on."

"Oh yeah, that's easy for you to say!" Asuka grumbled as she struggled to hold the thrashing Angel, or more accurately, hold on to. The Angel was currently dragging Asuka's Unit Two steadily forward, her feet leaving gouges in the ground as she tried to stop it. "Got any other brilliant plans, Misato?"

"Don't worry Asuka. Katsuragi will come up with something," Kaji interjected. Misato glared at his unwanted input. He just smirked at her. "She always does.".

"Alright, Kaji," Asuka said, her voice more enthusiastic, "but tell her to speed it up!"

"If Asuka can keep it's A.T. field neutralized, we might just be able to crack its armor with missiles. It's a long shot, but…"

"The Second Child will not be able to defeat the Angel." Commander Ikari's voice surprised everyone. He had remained silent for much of the battle, observing silently from overhead. He seemed to ponder the situation for a moment. "Major, launch Unit One."

"Commander, we don't have a pilot." Misato protested. "Unit One will be about as useful as a cardboard cutout without one."

"That will not be a problem." He looked over at Ritsuko. "Doctor, activate the dummy plug the moment Unit One reaches the surface."

"Commander, the dummy plugs have proved to be unpredictable and unstable in all the tests." Ritsuko warned. "It may prove effective against the angel, but it could just as well go on a mindless rampage, not work at all, or even turn on Pilot Sohryu."

"Anything is better than the current situation." He looked down at Misato and the bridge technicians. "Launch the Eva."

****

. . .

Shinji and Kensuke both watch as Rei's Eva went down. Shinji was reminded of the battle with the Fifth Angel, the super-heated entry plug, Rei's smile. But even the Fifth had not been as powerful as this monster, which was dragging Unit Two around like a small child that had latched itself to an adult's leg.

Kensuke winced as Asuka tightened her grip on the Angel and more of the Eva's blood poured down the silver appendages. "Ouch," he hissed, remembering what it had been like when Shinji let him and Touji inside the entry plug. He felt a twinge of sympathy, despite the fact that it was the devil herself piloting the red machine.

Beside him Shinji stood, whispering to himself, cheering Asuka on from the sidelines. "Man, its strange having you here when a battle's going on. I can't believe you actually quit."

Shinji sighed, "I know it was probably cool having an Eva pilot for a friend."

"Well, yeah it was," Kensuke admitted, "but that's not important, at least not to me and Touji. But I'm sure your fan club will be disappointed."

"Fan club? What are you talking about?"

"Hell, probably half the school has seen the battle footage I shot, and the others have at least heard about it. Most of the school admires you for what you've done, including a good portion of the female population." Kensuke grumbled out that last bit. Another of his plans that had backfired on him. He had gathered quite a crowd of girls with one of his video showings, but it only ended up getting Shinji more attention. "Probably the only thing keeping them from making a move is that they're all scared to death the Red-devil will tear their still-beating hearts out of their chests."

"I don't hold it against you Shinji, though I'm sure some of the guys at school don't like it that you have all the girls' attention," Kensuke grinned, still filming the battle. "But I sure wouldn't mind getting the opportunity to play the hero at least once."

"Its not all fun and games, Kensuke."

"I know that. You guys put your lives on the line all the time and…"

"Kensuke, Touji is in the hospital because of me! I almost killed his sister the first time I got in that thing. Its not just dangerous to me, its dangerous to everyone around it."

"And those Angels aren't? A lot more people live that probably would've died because you and Ayanami and the devil over there are willing to face them." He actually took his eye away from the viewfinder for a moment to look at Shinji, illustrating the sincerity of his words. "I know Mari doesn't blame you for what happened to her, and I'm pretty sure Touji feels the same way."

He left Shinji with that thought as he went back to filming the titanic tug-of-war. Shinji began to shake, collapsing against the concrete entryway of the shelter. "What am I doing?"

He had been so afraid of hurting someone else, of having to carry that guilt around with him, that he had abandoned everyone he cared for. Now, if what Kaji had told him was true, all that stood between the angel and the end of the world was Asuka and Unit Two. There was no way he could get to his Eva in time to help her now.

"I let them go without anyone else to back them up.." he muttered.

"Don't be so sure about that…" Kensuke whispered as the hunched form of Unit One appeared from behind great doors. It lifted its head to glare at the Angel, its eyes glowing blood-red in the shadows. Shinji could only gape as the purple monstrosity advanced toward the Angel and Unit Two.

"They found another pilot?" Shinji said weakly. Half of him was relieved that help was on the way, and cheered the new pilot on, but the other half felt disheartened that he could be replaced so easily.

****

. . .

Asuka strained to hold on to the Angel, despite the synch-pain in her hands and chest. She couldn't lose, not this time. It went beyond pride now. She was the only one left that could stop the Angel, but she couldn't attack without letting go, and letting go would leave her open to attack.

"Asuka, just hang on a bit longer, were sending out Unit One," Misato said, just as the door enclosing the Evangelion started to open.

Asuka's heart leapt, almost afraid to believe it. _He came back. But of course he came back. He's the invincible Shinji Ikari. _Smirking, Asuka opened a channel to Unit One. "Finally decided to show up, Third Child?"

There was no response. _What, now he thinks he's too good to talk to me? _"Hey Shinji! Hurry it up will ya?"

Unit One was only too happy to obey, charging the Angel at full speed. Asuka cried out in alarm as the purple Evangelion crashed headlong into her and the Angel, knocking all three of them to the ground. The force of the impact tore one of the Angel's arms free from Asuka's grasp, severing the fingers on her Eva's right hand.

"Dammit Shinji!" Asuka yelled in pain. "What the hell do you think you're do... ing…" She froze as she stared into the crimson eyes of Unit One, the Eva growling at the Angel and her as it drew its progressive knife.

"Asuka! That's NOT Shinji!" Misato yelled, breaking Asuka out of her trance.

"WHAT?! Then who the hell is in it?"

"No one. Its on some kind of auto-pilot."

"Scheisse!" Asuka shouted as the wild Eva barely missed hitting her Unit Two when the prog knife glanced off the Angel's skin. "Dammit! I'm on your side!"

The Angel was not dissuaded by the appearance of this new enemy in the least. It simply muscled itself up off the ground, pushing Unit One backwards and tearing its other arm free from Unit Two's grasp.

Asuka screamed as the synch-pain of abruptly amputated fingers hit her. Infuriated she charged the Angel, driving her shoulder into its side. She fired the flechette rounds from the shoulder pylon, the metal spikes digging into the Angel's hide, but not far enough to disable it.

The Fourteenth whiped one arm across the ground, cutting Asuka's Eva off at the knees. The other arm came around moments later level with the Eva's chest. Asuka saw the razor-sharp edge flying towards her, and managed to eject moments before the Angel's arm severed the Eva's head and the top portion of its shoulders, losing consciousness as her entry plug rocketed away her connection with Unit Two was abruptly cut.

****

. . .

"NO!" Shinji cried out, his heart freezing in his chest as Unit Two's upper torso was separated from the rest of it's body in a horrendous torrent of blood. Kensuke managed to catch the entry plug as it flew away, his expression growing more and more horrified as the metal cylinder grew larger in his viewfinder.

Finally seeing the incoming entry plug himself, Shinji grabbed his friend by the collar. Kensuke in tow, Shinji dashed away from the shelter entrance as the entry plug crashed into the ground and plowed through it until it collided with the concrete bunker.

Coughing though the dust, Shinji ran up to the entry plug, tugging on the bent handle with all his strength. Groaning loudly the damaged door was slowly pried open. LCL pouring out on the ground. Not wasting any time, Shinji jumped inside.

"Asuka?" he called out when he saw the girl lying on her side in the remaining LCL. She didn't move, but started to cough when he picked her up and placed one of her arms over his shoulder.

"Kensuke!" he shouted from the door. "Help me get her out!"

Kensuke hurried over and grabbed the arm Shinji handed to him, taking Asuka's shoulders while Shinji grabbed her legs and climbed out of the entry plug. "Put her down here," he instructed. Kensuke set Asuka down on the grass and collapsed on the ground next to her. While he caught his breath, Shinji rolled Asuka onto her side allowing her to cough up the remainder of the LCL in her lungs.

He sighed with relief when she started breathing normally. He looked back up to see how the battle was progressing, hoping the pilot would be able to defeat the Angel. He couldn't help but wonder who was inside the Eva, briefly wondering if it was Touji, but he could never see his friend behaving in this way. Unit One fought with reckless abandon, slashing wildly at the angel, but there was no consideration to where the blows fell. It attacks were clumsy, and haphazard.

"Come one," Shinji muttered. "You can beat that thing."

The Angel quickly tired of the annoyance in front of it, one of its arms shooting out towards the Evangelion, which Unit One was able to deflect with its progressive knife. The arm continued on its course, encircling the Eva and constricting around its arms. The prog knife immobilized, Unit on could do little but writhe in the Angel's grasp. Wrapping its other appendage around the Eva's legs, hefting the purple war machine overhead.

The fourteenth Angel slammed the Eva into the ground with enough force that it shook the concrete bunker. The light in the Eva's eyes faded, the Angel tossing it aside like a broken toy before continuing on its inexorable course.

No. It couldn't be over. Not like this. So many people were depending on them. There was so much at stake. It couldn't end this way. There had to be something else…

Something he could do…

"Kensuke, take care of Asuka for me, okay."

"Shinji? What are you," Kensuke started, but Shinji was already gone, sprinting towards the fallen form of Unit One, leaving him alone.

Alone, camcorder in hand, sitting on the ground next to an unconscious Asuka Langley Sohryu, who was wearing a skintight rubber suit and who happened to be coming around at that very moment.

Take care of Asuka? Who's gonna take care of ME? Kensuke thought, as Asuka's eyes opened and focused first on him and then on his camcorder. It dawned on him that he was going to have one hell of a mark on his face in a few minutes.

****

. . .

Shinji felt like his lungs were going to burst, but he didn't slow down. He pushed past the pain and focused only on his goal. He had been running all his life, but now he was running towards something. Even if it destroyed him, he would not run away this time.

Somehow I have to get back to the place where my journey started.

The path he had followed had taken so many turns, that he had become lost, but he would not allow his fear to hold him back any more.

Find the course I charted…

When I first departed.

He reached the gouge Unit One had created when the angel had thrown it. He slid down the steep, crumbling walls of the depression, stumbling and crashing hard to the ground below.

He groaned as he tried to move, already fatigued and now in pain.

He had already let so many people down. Asuka, Rei, Misato… every one of the people he worked with at Nerv. All his friends, his classmates… they were all depending on him. He couldn't fail them again.

Somehow I have to hang on to the vision that first inspired me.

He pushed himself up off the ground, spitting the dirt from his mouth.

To the hope that fired me…

When the world admired me.

His breath coming in rapid gasps, he forced himself to move, to approach the silent beast, to grasp the violet metal, to climb up the enormous bulk of the Evangelion.

I'll find my way back to the higher ground,

And see the view I saw before.

He didn't know how, but he found he strength to climb to the top of the Eva's back and eject the entry plug. The plug was empty, its interior bathed in a blood red light. He had no idea where the pilot could have gone, if there ever was a pilot. He should have expected his father to have a backup plan of some kind, but he couldn't dwell on that at the moment. He still had no idea how he was going to activate the Eva, let alone defeat the Angel, but he had to try.

I'll search the world until the answer's found.

Turn my despair around forevermore…

. . .

Central dogma was in chaos, as some tracked the terrifying approach of the Angel, others trying desperately to get either Unit Zero or Unit One functioning again. While others monitored the still unconscious pilot of the damaged blue Eva, Maya and Ritsuko concentrated on the tempermental purple Eva

"Try reinitializing the system," Ritsuko instructed her as she typed with incredible urgency on her keyboard.

"Reinitializing… It's no good. Unit One has power, but it won't activate."

"The dummy plug isn't working…" Ritsuko said, searching for the cause. "That last impact damaged the plug's core."

"So its useless." Misato said, her last hopes having just been dashed. Their was nothing left that could stop the angel.

"Major! The Angel is…" The technician was silenced as part of the command center was torn away.

"My God…" was all Misato could say as she stared into the dimly-glowing, sulfur yellow eyes of the beast. To call it monstrous would not do it justice. She took two unsteady steps away from the Angel, backing into the equally stunned Kaji.

The command center grew silent as the Angel looked over the puny creatures standing before it. The object of its purpose was nearby, it could sense it. The small things stood in its way.

Misato started to tremble as the eyes of the angel grew brighter, already knowing what was to come. She tensed as a hand fell on her shoulder, but relaxed into the comforting embrace. Now was not the time for juvenile façades. She buried her face in Kaji's shoulder as he soothingly stroked her hair. If this was her time to die, there was no place she'd rather be than here.

The deafening silence was followed by an even more deafening crash. Misato looked up as Kaji muttered, "Unit One?"

She watched in disbelief, as the Eva grabbed the Angel's from behind, lifting it bodily into the air and dragging it away from them. _The dummy plug? _she thought, before looking at an equally stunned Ritsuko. She turned back to watch the retreating forms, her voice filled with elation, fear, and hope. "Shinji?"

****

. . .

Shinji's yells filled the entry plug as he dragged the Angel away from the command center. The Angel writhed in his grasp, but he would not let go. He was not going to let this thing hurt anyone else.

Somehow I have to rebuild all the dreams that the winds has scattered.

The Angel started to slip in his Eva's grasp as they returned to the open air of the geofront. Shinji pulled harder, sending both massive beasts crashing to the ground. Not giving the Angel a chance to recover, Shinji pushed its immense form off his Eva. Enraged, he began punching the Angel repeatedly in its horrible face. As one of his blows made contact, the Angel unleashed its attack.

From what fate has shattered…

Shinji screamed as his Eva's left forearm was vaporized, the explosion partially cauterizing the wound with an astounding degree of pain. Shinji forced himself to stay conscious and continued to attack, using the pain fuel his anger to drive him onward. He continued to pound the Angel's face, each strike further caving in the melted and fused face of the now cyclopic beast.

I'll retrieve what mattered.

He grabbed the edge of the Angel's deformed face and pulled, aiming to tear the gruesome mask from the creatures body. It looked as though he would succeed in that goal, blood seeping from around his Eva's fingers, when his power ran out and the Eva shut down.

"No…" he whispered as Unit one stopped, the Angel pushing the Eva's limp form off.

"No! You can't stop now!" he bellowed as the gravity of the situation hit him. He tugged violently on the controls, but the giant war-machine lay dead around him. The entry plug shook as the Fourteenth Angel renewed its attack, not willing to make the same mistake it had before. This time it would make certain the purple creature was dead before it continued with its purpose.

Somehow I have to go on until this evil has been defeated.

The Eva shuddered as the Angel lifted it up and threw it against a hillside.

Until my work is completed…

The armor around the Eva groaned as the Angel pressed all of its weight on Unit 01, crushing it into the earth.

"I WILL NOT BE CHEATED!!!"

The Evangelion's eyes flashed, and the monstrosity roared as it swung its functioning arm into the face of the Angel, digging its thumb into the beast's remaining eye. The Angel roared in pain as it was blinded.

The Eva did not hesitate in its assault tearing its thumb free through the side of the Angel's face in a torrent of blood, bringing its fist down hard against the Angel's head. With an incredible show of brute force, the Eva threw the massive angel off its body. Unit one acted with pure predatory drive, its pilot having already departed.

Another had taken his place at the controls, and he reveled in the power he felt at his fingertips. He did not wait to think, he simply reacted. When he saw an opening in the flailing of the Angel's razor-sharp arms he took it, delivering a fierce uppercut to the angel's face. Though it was blind, the Angel tried to counterattack, its arms lashing out in the general direction of the Eva.

Unit One dodged one of the cutting blades, grabbing the other and crushing it in in its merciless grasp. Pulling on the appendage its reeled in the Angel, driving its foot into the armored shell protecting the creature's core. The arm in the Eva's grasp was torn from the Angel's body as the creature was knocked flat on its back.

The Eva held the severed alien tissue up against its own wounded elbow, the tissues fusing together and reforming the missing limb. It approached the downed Angel, searching for signs of life. It growled as it leaned over the angel.

The Fourteenth lashed out at the noise with its remaining limb, the attack heading straight for nit One's head. The Eva caught the limb in mid flight, crushing it and pinning its remaining length against the Angel's body. It backhanded the angel, roaring with rage. Slamming its free hand on the angel's face, it sank its teeth into the creatures hide, blood pouring from the wound.

The Angel struggled for a few moments as the Eva devoured it alive, its movements slowing . Soon all motion in the massive creature ceased, as the Evangelion consumed its S2 organ, taking the orb into itself and assimilating it into its own core.

The pilot gasped as the feeling struck him, the full potenial of the Eva opening up to him as it awoke. He had been in awe of the Evangelion's strength before, but there was no describing the sensation now. Every nerve, every muscle, every fiber of his being felt alive, electrified by the power of the Angel.

No, even an angel. The power of a…

God.

You must help me carry on.

The other being inside the beast cried out from the void in desperation, calling out to whoever might hear him. He could not allow his darkness to stay in control, not now that the Eva was completely free of the power limitations that had stopped him before. But the darkness was all-enveloping, and he truly desired to just give up and surrender to the darkness...

When it seems all hope has gone,

…but he would not let his friends down any longer.

I have got to carry on.

The darkness gave way to searing, burning light, as Shinji, mind, body and soul, was torn apart.

****

. . .

He slowly opened his eyes, the brightness almost too much for him to bear. He blinked to clear his vision as his eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

He looked up at a familiar ceiling. One that he was far too familiar with for his own liking. Shinji smiled, marveling at how good that one motion felt. He felt… lighter, as though a great weight had been taken from him.

It was gone…

The shadow that had dwelled over his mind for so long had disappeared. He didn't know how. He could remember darkness, then light, and a feeling that could only be described as both death and rebirth. and there was a feeling of comfort, of love and happiness that he had not known for a long time.

And it was there that the memory had faded into a fog. He tried to recall the sensation, but realized he would not be able to.

"Well," came the a loud voice from the other side of the room, "its about time you woke up."

Shinji groaned and turned his head to one side, finding coppery red hair and sapphire blue eyes. Asuka put down her magazine and walked over to the table beside his bed.

"How long was I out?" he croaked, his throat dry.

"Its been a little over a day," she said, holding out a cup of water for him.

"Thank you" he said as he took it, drinking it a little too fast and coughing.

"So are you feeling alright?" Asuka asked.

"Yes," he answered. _Much better than I've felt in a long time…_

"Good," Asuka said smiling. She then proceeded to whack Shinji on the head.

"OW!" he cried. "What was that for?!"

"That was for running off without telling anyone, Baka!" She shouted.

"And this…" She proceeded to whack him on the head two more times. "That was for me having to deal with both of your perverted friends while you were gone!"

Shinji rubbed the top of his head and stared back up at the hospital ceiling, "I came back for _this_?"

Asuka's face started turning red. He had the nerve to say something like that, after she waited the entire day for him to wake up. "Why… you… undankbarer kleiner Ruck! Ich habe hier den ganzen Tag für Sie gewartet aufzuwachen…"

Shinji smiled as Asuka ranted on, not understanding a word of what she said, but chuckling quietly to himself nonetheless. "Its good to see you too, Asuka."

Shinji's voice stopped her dead in her tracks, the red of her face retreating to her cheeks before she again found her words. "Well, don't think you're off the hook, Third child. You owe me for all the instant food I was forced to eat while you were gone. And I want REAL food. None of that processed soy fodder you seem to think is food. No fish either. You don't know how tired I am of fish .And no rice. If I see one speck of rice on my plate…"

"Alright I get the idea," Shinji laughed, eliciting an annoyed glare from the girl. He was almost glad he couldn't remember what had happened inside the Eva. He was afraid reality wouldn't be able to hold up to that feeling of bliss, and he didn't want that. He was happy, at least at that moment, and he didn't want to cheapen that feeling by comparing it to something that was beyond normal reality.

****

. . .

End of Act One

****

. . .

End of Act 1 notes: Wow that took a long time to finish. When I started off writing this chapter I was clean-shaven. Now I have a full beard (sans the moustache). I feel slightly more evil, but really I'm just growing it out for a couple of Cons that are coming up in the bay area. My friends and I will be attending _Tales of Anime _and the _JapanTown Anime Faire_, and Gendo is the only costume I have completed at this time. I have to admit, it is fun to walk around town. You can almost instantly tell who's an anime fan by the looks they give you when you walk by wearing the beard of the bastard king.

I had hoped to get this last chapter done before I went up to Idaho to visit my grandparents, but no such luck. I figured this would be a good place to leave off in the story while I finish and rework the last half. I will also be spending this time working on other projects, including finishing my chapters on MiaElf's _Mashed Mangled and Mall(ed) by a Princess_. I may be doing a couple of one-shots soon, though I'm not sure when they'll be done. I don't expect any updates on Shinji and Hyde until after the fall semester, but as I get closer to finishing, I'll be releasing two "intermission" chapters. The stuff in them will fill in the gaps between the two acts, but will not be critical to the plotline. Thankfully, taking the break will allow me time to start submitting the chapters to my pre-readers again, which will be a great help (I still have typos and mistakes throughout the fic, if you haven't noticed).

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to solicit input from the readers. For a while now I've been working on ideas for a _Eva/Star Wars _fusion, with _Evangelion _characters born into the _Star Wars _universe. I already have most of the basic plot worked out, and some of the names. Here's some of what I have:

Shin Jikari - failed Sith Apprentice abandoned by his master at a young age.

Asuka Sunrider - Correlian Jedi prodigy from a long line of strong Jedi women.

PN-2 - A black and white custom-built astromech droid. Has a slightly-worn vocoder that makes a strange 'wark' sound instead of clear 'beeps'.

Kouzo Sifo-Dyas - A Jedi instructor in lightsaber combat. Could have remained a leading figure on the Jedi council, but chose to pursue teaching instead. His students are often shocked at how boring his lessons on Second Form (one of the more exciting styles of lightsaber combat) can be.

Kaworu Sifo-Dyas - Padawan learner and clone of Kouzo Sifo-Dyas

There is more that I have worked out. For example, Misato's character is a purple-skinned Twi'lek (one of those aliens with the two head-tails). Unfortunately, I have been unable to create a "Starwarsified" name for her as of yet. Yes, I could leave it as is, but I would like to diversify the names a bit (at least I put Asuka in a nice, noble Jedi family, instead of naming her something like 'Kate Rose'). So if you have any suggestions for names and other ideas, drop a line in a review or an e-mail (reviews are preferred, as I get cookies and such for reaching certain numbers). I don't know when this fic will see the light of day, or what suggestions I may use for it, but any input at all is appreciated.

Thanks to everyone who has read this fic, and to those that have reviewed. And don't worry, there's still plenty more to go.

The bodies have yet to start piling up…


End file.
